C R O M 
that guided him therein, he ufed a good method upon 
his converiion, for he declared that he was ready to make 
reftitution unto any man who would accufe him, or 
whom he could accufe himfelf, to have wronged. To 
his honour I fpeak this (continues fir Philip), for I 
think the public acknowledgments men make of the 
public evils they have done, to be the moll glorious 
trophies that can be afligned to them. When he was 
thus civilized, he joined himfelf to men of his own tem¬ 
per, who pretended to tranfports and revelations.” 
Lord Hollis, in his Memoirs, accufes Cromwell of 
behaving cowardly in two or three actions ; and adds, 
that as he was going in proceffion to the high court of 
juftice in Weftminfter-hall, to try the king, fome of the 
foldiers reproached him openly, and in the hearing of 
the people, with want of courage. Some of his fpeeches 
to his parliament alfo appear perplexed and embarralfed. 
He had mod probably his reafons for making them un¬ 
intelligible. Mr. Spence, in his manufeript Anecdotes, 
fays, that the dean of Peterborough told him, that he 
once heard Cromwell, in council, deliver an opinion 
upon fome commercial matter with great precifion, and 
great knowledge of the fubjeft. In his cheerful hours, 
Cromwell appears to have laughed at the fanatics who 
fupported him and his government. The jeft of the 
cork-fcrew is well known ; and when, on his having 
di(patched a fleet upon fome fecret expedition, one of 
the fanatics called upon him, and had the impudence to 
tell him, that the Lord wanted to know the deftination 
of it: “ The Lord (hall know (fays Cromwell), for 
thou (halt go with the fleet.” So ringing his bell, he 
ordered fome of his foldiers to take him on board one of 
the (hips belonging to it. 
Cromwell, like many other reformers of government, 
was very apt to cenfure grievances in church and ftate, 
though he had not framed to himfelf any particular or 
fpecific plan of amending them. On the fubjeCt of ec- 
clefiaftical affairs, he once frankly and ingenuoufiy laid, 
to fome perfons with whom he was difputing, “ I can 
tell what I would not have, though I cannot tell what I 
would have.” He appears to have thought very flight- 
ingly of the will and of the power of the people ; for 
when he was told, by Mr. Calamy, the celebrated dif- 
fenting minifter, that it was both unlawful and imprac¬ 
ticable that one man fhould aflume the government of 
the country, he faid to him, “ Pray, why is it imprac¬ 
ticable?” And on Mr. Calamy telling him, “ O, it is 
the voice of the nation ; there will be nine in ten againft 
you :” “ Very well (replied Cromwell) ; but what if 
I fhould dilarm the nine, and put the fword in the 
tenth man’s hand, would not that do the bufinefs r” The 
French proverb fays, “ A man never goes fo far as when 
he does not know where he is going.” This was mod 
probably Cromwell’s cafe : he had indeed gone fo far, 
that, with Macbeth, he might have faid. 
Returning were as tedious as go o’er. 
Marflial Villeroy, Louis XIVth’s governor, afked 
Lockhart, Cromwell’s ambaffador, “ Why his mafter 
had not taken the title of king ?” “ Monfieur (replied 
Lockhart), we know the extent of the prerogatives of a 
king,but know not thofe of a proteCtor.347. 
Provoft Bailie, who was in London at the time of 
Oliver’s death, fays : “ The protestor, Oliver, endea¬ 
voured to fettle all in his family, but was prevented by 
death before he could make a teftament. He had not 
fupplied the blank with his fon Richard’s name by his 
hand, and fcarce with his mouth could he declare that 
much of his will. There were no witnefles to it but 
Thurloe and Goodwin. 
It is mentioned in Spence’s manufeript Anecdotes, 
that a few nights after the execution of king Charles, a 
man, covered with a cloak, and with his face muffled 
up, fuppofed to have been Oliver Cromwell, marched 
flowly round the coffin, covered with a pall, which con- 
W ELL. £83 
tained the body of Charles, ar.d exclaimed, loudly 
enough to be heard by the attendants on the remains'of 
that unfortunate monarch, “ Dreadful neceffity!” Hav¬ 
ing done this two or three times, he marched out of the 
room, in the fame flow and folemn manner in which he 
came into it. Cromwell and Ireton faw the execution 
of Charles from a fmall window of the banqueting houfe 
of Whitehall. 
Oliver Cromwell was perhaps never more accurately 
deferibed, than by fir William Waller, in his “ Recol¬ 
lections.” Speaking of the beating up of Colonel 
Long’s quarters, as he terms it, in which Cromwell’s 
horfe did good fervice, he fays : “ And here I cannot 
but mention the wonder which I have oft times had to 
fee this eagle in his eirey : he att this time had never 
fliewn extraordinary partes, nor do I think that he did 
himfelf believe that he had them ; for, although he 
was blunt, he did not bear himfelf with pride or dif- 
daine. As an officer, he was obedient, and did never 
difpute my orders, nor argue upon them. He did in- 
deede, feeme to have great cunning ; and, whilft he was 
cautious of his own words (not putting forth too many, 
left they fhould betray his thoughts), he made others 
talk untill he had, as it were, fifted them, and known 
their rnoft intimate defigns. A notableinftar.ee was, his 
difeovering, in one fliort converfation with captain Giles 
(a great favourite with the lord general, and whome he. 
mod confided in), that, although his words were full of 
zeal, and his actions feemingly brave, that his heart was 
not with the caufe ; and, in fine, this man did fhortly 
after join the enemy at Oxford, with three and twenty 
ftout fellowes. One other inftance I will here fett down, 
being of the fame fort, as to his cunning : When I took 
the lord Piercy, at Andover, having at that time an 
inconvenient diftemper, I defired colonel Cromwell to 
entertaine him with fome civility ; who did afterwards 
telle me, that amongft thofe whom we tooke with him 
(being about thirty), there was a youth of fo faire a coun¬ 
tenance, that he doubted of his condition,; and to con¬ 
firm himfelf, willed him to fing, which he did with fuch 
a daintinefs, that Cromwell fcrupled not to fay to lord 
Piercy, that being a warriour, he did wifely to be ac¬ 
companied by Amazons. On which, that lord, in fome 
confufion, did acknowledge that (he was a damfel.” 
Recollections by General Sir William Waller , p. 124. 
The original of the following letter is in the Bodleian 
library at Oxford. It is without the fignature. “ Sir, 
in purfuance to my promife, I have fent you the ftory 
you defired of me when I faw you laft. Sir, after the 
late king was beheaded (if I miftake not), Latham 
Houfe, w h belonged to the Earl of Derby (who was 
alfo beheaded at Liverpool), was furrendered to my 
lord Fairfax, upon promife of having quarter; at which 
furrender, my father being in the houfe, and chaplain to 
the earl, was taken prifoner with the earl of Derby’s 
children, who were imprifoned in Liverpool jail, where 
he was kept clofe prifoner in y e dungeon, though the 
reft where permitted the liberty of the jail-yard ; where 
I believe he would have lain till the king’s return, or 
till death had fet him at liberty, if it had not been his 
fortune to have been freed by the following accident: 
The patriarchs of Greece, hearing of the unparalleled 
murder of our late king by his own fubjeCts, fent one of 
their own body as an envoy over here into England, 
and his errand was this: To know of Oliver Cromwell 
and the reft, by what law, either of God or man, they 
put their king to death. But the patriarch, fpeaking 
no language but the common Greek, and roaming 
without an interpreter, no one underftood him; and 
though there were many good Grecians (whofe names I 
have forgot) brought to him, yet they could not under- 
ftand his Greek. Thereupon, Lentale, who was fpeaker 
to the houfe of commons, told them, that there was in 
prifon one of the king’s party that underftood the com¬ 
mon Greek, who would interpret to them what the pa¬ 
triarch 
