gh her father sorely pressed her to put
it by, and not dwell on so uncivil a theme, the more so as, in Crimson
Characters, on the background she had painted the words "Blood for
Blood," But whatever she did was now taken little account of, for all
thought her to be distraught.

By and by she fell to quite a new order in her painting. She seemed to
take infinite pleasure in making portraitures of OLIVER CROMWELL, who
had by this time become Lord Protector of the Commonwealth. She had
never seen that Bold Bad Man (the splendour of whose mighty achievements
must for ever remain tarnished by his blood-guiltiness in the matter of
the King's Murther); but from descriptions of his person, for which she
eagerly sought, and from bustos, pictures, and prints cut in brass,
which she obtained from Bristol and elsewhere, she produced some
surprising resemblances of him who was now the Greatest Man in England.
She painted him at full and at half length--in full-face, profile, and
three-quarter; but although she would show her work to her intimates,
and ask eagerly "Is it like--is it like him?" she would never part with
one copy (and there were good store of time-servers ready to buy the
Protector's picture at that time), nor could any tell how she disposed
of them.

This went on until the summer of the year 1657, when her father gently
put it to her that she had worn the willow long enough, and would have
had her ally herself with some gentleman of worth and parts in that part
of the country. For the poor Esquire desired that she should be his
heiress, and that a man-child should be born to the Greenville estate,
and thus the heir-at-law, who was a wretched attorney at Bristol, and
more bitter against kings than ever, should not inherit. She was not to
be moved, however, towards marriage; saying softly that she was already
wedded to her Frank in heaven,--for so she spoke of the Lord Francis
V----s,--and that her union had been blessed by her brother Dick, who
was in Heaven too, with King Charles and all the Blessed Army of
Martyrs. And I have heard, indeed, that the unhappy business of the
King's death was the means of so crazing, or casting into a Sad Celibacy
and Devouring Melancholy, multitudes of comely young women who were born
for love and delights, and to be the smiling mothers of many children.

So, seeing that he could do nothing with her, and loth to use any
unhandsome pressure towards one whom he loved as the Apple of hi