fears of assassination,
which are the usual meed of inordinate and successful ambition.[1]

The force so lately put on the parliament, and the occasion of that
force, had opened the eyes of the most devoted among his adherents. His
protestations of disinterestedness, his solemn appeals to Heaven in
testimony of his wish to lead the life of a private gentleman, were
contrasted with his aspiring and arbitrary conduct; and the house, though
deprived of one-fourth of its number, still contained a majority jealous
of his designs and anxious to limit his authority. The accident which had
placed his life in jeopardy naturally led to the consideration of the
probable consequences of his death; and, to sound the disposition of
the members, the question of the succession was repeatedly, though not
formally, introduced. The remarks which it provoked afforded little
encouragement to his hopes; yet, when the previous arrangements had been
made, and all the dependants of the government had been mustered, Lambert,
having in a long and studied speech detailed the evils of elective, the
benefits of hereditary, succession, moved[a] that the office of protector
should be limited to the family of Oliver Cromwell, according to the known
law of inheritance. To the surprise and the mortification

[Footnote 1: Heath, 363. Thurloe, ii. 652, 653, 672. Ludlow, ii. 63.
Vaughan, i. 69.]

[Sidenote a: A.D. 1654. Oct. 13.]

of the party, the motion was negatived by a division of two hundred against
eighty voices; and it was resolved that, on the death of the protector, his
successor should be chosen by the parliament if it were sitting, and by the
council in the absence of parliament.[1]

This experiment had sufficiently proved the feelings of the majority.
Aware, however, of their relative weakness, they were careful to give
Cromwell no tangible cause of offence. If they appointed committees to
revise the ordinances which he had published, they affected to consider
them as merely provisional regulations, supplying the place of laws till
the meeting of parliament. If they examined in detail the forty-two
articles of "the instrument," rejecting some, and amending others, they
still withheld their unhallowed hands from those subjects which _he_
had pronounced sacred,--the four immovable pillars on which the new
constitution was built. Cromwell, on his part, betrayed no symptom of
impatience; but waited quietly for the moment when he had resolved