ior officers, they refused to obey; some members proposed
to declare it treason to put force on the representatives of the nation,
others to pronounce all proceedings void whenever a portion of the members
should be excluded by violence; at last they adjourned for three days,
and accompanied the speaker to his carriage in the face of the soldiery
assembled at the door. These proceedings, however, did not prevent Fiennes,
the head commissioner, from dissolving the parliament; and the important
intelligence was communicated to the three nations by proclamation in the
same afternoon.[1]

Whether the consequences of this measure, so fatal to the interests of
Richard, were foreseen by his advisers, may be doubted. It appears that
Thurloe had for several days been negotiating both with the republican and
the military leaders. He had tempted some of the former with the offer
of place and emolument, to strengthen the party of the protector; to the
latter he had proposed that Richard, in imitation of his father on one
occasion, should raise money for the payment of the army by the power of
the sword, and without the aid of parliament.[2] But these intrigues were
now at an end; by the dissolution Richard had signed his own deposition;
though he continued to reside at Whitehall, the government fell into
abeyance; even the officers, who had hitherto frequented

[Footnote 1: Whitelock, 677. England's Confusion, 9. Clarendon Papers, 451,
456. Ludlow, ii. 174. Merc. Pol. 564.]

[Footnote 2: Thurloe, 659, 661.]

[Sidenote a: A.D. 1659. April 22.]

his court, abandoned him, some to appease, by their attendance at
Wallingford House, the resentment of their adversaries, the others, to
provide, by their absence, for their own safety. If the supreme authority
resided any where, it was with Fleetwood, who now held the nominal command
of the army; but he and his associates were controlled both by the meeting
of officers at St. James's, and by the consultations of the republican
party in the city; and therefore contented themselves with depriving the
friends of Richard of their commissions, and with giving their regiments
to the men who had been cashiered by his father.[1] Unable to agree on
any form of government among themselves, they sought to come to an
understanding with the republican leaders. These demanded the restoration
of the long parliament, on the ground that, as its interruption by Cromwell
had been illegal, it was still the