arty; and
in the course of a few

[Footnote 1: Printed by G. Sawbridge, 1654.]

days almost three hundred names were subscribed. The Stanch republicans
refused; yet the sequel showed that their exclusion did not give to the
court that ascendancy in the house which had been anticipated.[1]

About this time an extraordinary accident occurred. Among the presents
which Cromwell had received from foreign princes, were six Friesland
coach-horses from the duke of Oldenburg. One day,[a] after he had dined
with Thurloe under the shade in the park, the fancy took him to try the
mettle of the horses. The secretary was compelled to enter the carriage;
the protector, forgetful of his station, mounted the box. The horses at
first appeared obedient to the hand of the new coachman; but the too
frequent application of the lash drove them into a gallop, and the
protector was suddenly precipitated from his seat. At first, he lay
suspended by the pole with his leg entangled in the harness; and the
explosion of a loaded pistol in one of his pockets added to the fright and
the rapidity of the horses; but a fortunate jerk extricated his foot from
his shoe, and he fell under the body of the carriage without meeting with
injury from the wheels. He was immediately taken up by his guards, who
followed at full speed, and conveyed to Whitehall; Thurloe leaped from the
door of the carriage, and escaped with a sprained ancle and some severe
bruises. Both were confined to their chambers for a long time;

[Footnote 1: Thurloe, ii. 606. Whitelock, 605. Journals, Sept. 5-18.
Fleetwood, from Dublin, asks Thurloe, "How cam it to passe, that this
last teste was not at the first sitting of the house?" (ii. 620). See in
Archaeol. xxiv. 39, a letter showing that several, who refused to subscribe
at first through motives of conscience, did so later. This was in
consequence of a declaration that the recognition did not comprehend all
the forty-two articles in "the instrument," but only what concerned the
government by a single person and successive parliaments.--See Journals,
Sept. 14.]

[Sidenote a: A.D. 1654. Sept. 24.]

but by many, their confinement was attributed as much to policy as to
indisposition. The Cavaliers diverted themselves by prophesying that, as
his first fall had been from a coach, the next would be from a cart: to
the public, the explosion of the pistol revealed the secret terrors which
haunted his mind, that sense of insecurity, those