t all their
actions. He had formed a determination not only to annihilate the
ancient nobility, but also to create a new house of peers, consisting of
men raised by what he called personal merit, in reality a selection from
his own creatures, which is often the true explanation of the word
merit, when used for party-purposes. No expedient could better serve
such a purpose, than that of exhibiting birth and rank, self-degraded in
the person of one, who he knew would prove himself unworthy of the trust
reposed in him.

When a system of _espionage_ and secret influence becomes the ruling
principle of government, it follows that the governed must counteract
its designs by a similar process, and thus venality and treachery become
legalized by the acknowledged laws of self-defence. Lord Bellingham had
his agents in the army, as well as Cromwell, and soon discovered that
the sword of Damocles was suspended over his head. Though disaffected to
the cause he served, he had not courage to avow his sentiments, or even
prudence enough to throw up the command, and embrace the only chance of
safety, by choosing a life of retirement. Wedded to the possessions and
rank he had so dearly purchased, and full of ill-founded confidence that
he could play as successful a game with a close-penetrating tyrant, as
he had done with a generous inexperienced King, he thought an air of
inexorable cruelty to the royalists must remove, or at least lull the
suspicions of the serpent, who lay wrapped round in observant coil,
ready to spring upon him. As to the feelings of those whom he
persecuted, for the sake of prolonging his own worthless life and
preserving his ill-acquired fortunes, he either entirely forgot that
they had any, or considered that self-preservation rendered every
expedient lawful.

After enduring a siege equalled in horror only by that of Colchester,
Pembroke-Castle surrendered on the same terms; namely, that the common
soldiers might depart unmolested, and the inhabitants be safe in person
and property, while the officers and gentlemen who had borne arms should
surrender prisoners at mercy. The generous sentiments of these
self-devoted patriots sustained them in the agonizing trial of parting
with the bands they had led always to honour, sometimes to victory, by
the consideration that, by placing themselves in jeopardy, they had
purchased the safety of those whom they could no otherwise protect, and
whose services were now useless