nder
obsequious to his will. Urged, however, by the ceaseless importunities of
Thurloe, he appointed[a] nine councillors to inquire into the means of
defeating the intrigues of the republicans in a future parliament; the
manner of raising a permanent revenue from the estates of the royalists;
and the best method of determining the succession to the protectorate. But
among the nine were two who, aware of his increasing infirmities, began to
cherish projects of their own aggrandizement, and who, therefore, made it
their care to perplex and to prolong the deliberations. The committee sat
three weeks. On the two first questions they came to no conclusion; with
respect to the third, they voted, on a division, that the choice between
an elective and an hereditary succession was a matter of indifference.
Suspicious of their motives, Cromwell dissolved[b] the committee.[2] But he
substituted no

[Footnote 1: Thurloe, vii. 662.]

[Footnote 2: Ibid. 146, 176, 192, 269. The committee consisted, in
Thurloe's words, of Lord Fiennes, Lord Fleetwood, Lord Desborow, Lord
Chamberlayne, Lord Whalley, Mr. Comptroller, Lord Goffe, Lord Cooper, and
himself (p. 192). On this selection Henry Cromwell observes: "The wise men
were but seven; it seems you have made them nine. And having heard their
names, I think myself better able to guess what they'll do than a much
wiser man; for no very wise man can ever imagine it" (p. 217).]

[Sidenote a: A.D. 1658 June 16.]
[Sidenote b: A.D. 1658 July 8.]

council in its place; things were allowed to take their course; the
embarrassment of the treasury increased; and the irresolution of the
protector, joined to the dangers which threatened the government, shook the
confidence of Thurloe himself. It was only when he looked up to heaven
that he discovered a gleam of hope, in the persuasion that the God who had
befriended Cromwell through life, would not desert him at the close of his
career.[1][a]

2. To the cares of government must be added his constant dread of
assassination. It is certainly extraordinary that, while so many
conspiracies are said to have been formed, no attempt was actually made
against his person; but the fact that such designs had existed, and the
knowledge that his death was of the first importance to his enemies,
convinced him that he could never be secure from danger. He multiplied his
precautions. We are told that he wore defensive armour under his clothes;
carried loaded pist