.]
[Sidenote e: A.D. 1652. July 7.]

demand; but the progress of the treaty was interrupted by the usurpation
of Cromwell, and another year elapsed before it was[a] concluded. By
it valuable privileges were granted to the English traders; four
commissioners,--two English and two Portuguese, were appointed[b] to settle
all claims against the Portuguese government; and it was agreed[c] that an
English commissary should receive one-half of all the duties paid by the
English merchants in the ports of Portugal, to provide a sufficient fund
for the liquidation of the debt.[1]

5. To Charles I. (nor will it surprise us, if we recollect his treatment
of the Infanta) the court of Spain had always behaved with coldness and
reserve. The ambassador Cardenas continued to reside in London, even
after the king's execution, and was the first foreign minister whom the
parliament honoured with a public audience. He made it his chief object
to cement the friendship between the commonwealth and his own country,
fomented the hostility of the former against Portugal and the United
Provinces, the ancient enemies of Spain, and procured the assent of his
sovereign that an accredited minister from the parliament should be
admitted by the court of Madrid. The individual selected[d] for this office
was Ascham, a man who, by his writings, had rendered himself peculiarly
obnoxious to the royalists. He landed[e] near Cadiz, proceeded under an
escort for his protection to Madrid, and repaired[f] to an inn, till a
suitable residence could be procured. The next day,[g] while he was sitting
at dinner with Riba, a renegado friar, his interpreter,

[Footnote 1: Journals, 1650, Dec. 17; 1651, April 4, 11, 22, May 7, 13, 16;
1652, Sept. 30, Dec. 15; 1653, Jan. 5. Whitelock, 486. Dumont, vi. p. ii.
82.]

[Sidenote a: A.D. 1653. Jan. 5.]
[Sidenote b: A.D. 1651. July 10.]
[Sidenote c: A.D. 1651. July 14.]
[Sidenote d: A.D. 1650. Jan. 31.]
[Sidenote e: A.D. 1650. April 3.]
[Sidenote e: A.D. 1650. May 26.]
[Sidenote g: A.D. 1650. May 27.]

six Englishmen entered the house; four remained below to watch; two burst
into the room, exclaiming, "Welcome, gallants, welcome;" and in a moment
both the ambassador and the interpreter lay on the floor weltering in their
blood. Of the assassins, one, a servant to Cottington and Hyde, the envoys
from Charles, fled to the house of the Venetian ambassador, and escaped;
the other five took refuge in a neighbouring chapel,