s. It seemed as if free-born Britons had been converted
into a nation of slaves. These compositions were drawn up in the highest
strain of adulation, adorned with forced allusions from Scripture, and with
all the extravagance of Oriental hyperbole. "Their sun was set, but no
night had followed. They had lost the nursing father, by whose hand the
yoke of bondage had been broken from the necks and consciences of the
godly. Providence by one sad stroke had taken away the breath from their
nostrils, and smitten the head from their shoulders; but had given them in
return the noblest branch of that renowned stock, a prince distinguished
by the lovely composition of his person, but still more by the eminent
qualities of his mind. The late protector had been a Moses to lead God's
people out of the land of Egypt; his son would be a Joshua to conduct them
into a more full possession of truth and righteousness. Elijah had been
taken into heaven: Elisha remained on earth, the inheritor of his mantle
and his spirit!"[1]

The royalists, who had persuaded themselves that the whole fabric of the
protectorial power would fall in pieces on the death of Cromwell, beheld
with amazement the general acquiescence in the succession, of Richard; and
the foreign princes, who had deemed it prudent to solicit the friendship of
the father, now

[Footnote 1: The Scottish ministers in Edinburgh, instead of joining in
these addresses, prayed on the following Sunday, "that the Lord would be
merciful to the exiled, and those that were in captivity, and cause them to
return with sheaves of joy; that he would deliver all his people from the
yoke of Pharaoh, and task-masters of Egypt, and that he would cut off their
oppressors, and hasten the time of their deliverance."--Thurloe, vii. 416.]

hastened to offer their congratulations to his son. Yet, fair and tranquil
as the prospect appeared, an experienced eye might easily detect the
elements of an approaching storm. Meetings were clandestinely held by the
officers;[a] doubts were whispered of the nomination of Richard by his
father; and an opinion was encouraged among the military that, as the
commonwealth was the work of the army, so the chief office in the
commonwealth belonged to the commander of the army. On this account the
protectorship had been bestowed on Cromwell; but his son was one who had
never drawn his sword in the cause; and to suffer the supreme power to
devolve on him was to disgrace, to