r of
his former converse, and to run and transform into the manners of the
ancient tyrants, thinking to please and mitigate his own tortures with
the sufferings of others."

But now the fate his vigilance had hitherto combated at last overtook
him in a manner impossible to evade. He was attacked by divers
infirmities, but for some time made no outward sign of his suffering,
until one day five physicians came and waited on him, as Dr. George Bate
states in his ELENCHUS MOTUUM NUPERORUM. And one of them, feeling
his pulse, declared his Highness suffered from an intermittent fever;
hearing which "he looked pale, fell into a cold sweat, almost fainted
away, and orders himself to be carried to bed." His fright, however,
was but momentary. He was resolved to live. He had succeeded in raising
himself to a position of vast power, but had failed in attaining the
great object of his ambition--the crowned sovereignty of the nation he
had stirred to its centre, and conquered to its furthest limits. Brought
face to face with death, his indomitable will, which had shaped untoward
circumstances to his accord with a force like unto fate itself, now
determined to conquer his shadowy enemy which alone intercepted his path
to the throne. Therefore as he lay in bed he said to those around him
with that sanctity of speech which had cloaked his cruellest deeds and
dissembled his most ambitious designs, "I would be willing to live to be
further serviceable to God and his people."

As desires of waking hours are answered in sleep, so in response to his
nervous craving for life he had delusive assurances of health through
the special bounty of Providence. He was therefore presently able
to announce he "had very great discoveries of the Lord to him in his
sickness, and hath some certainty of being restored;" as Fleetwood, his
son-in-law, wrote on the 24th of August in this same year.

Accordingly, when one of the physicians came to him next morning, the
High Protector said, "Why do you look sad?" To which the man of lore
replied evasively, "So it becomes anyone who had the weighty care of
his life and health upon him." Then Cromwell to this purpose spoke: "You
think I shall die; I tell you I shall not die this bout; I am sure on't.
Don't think I am mad. I speak the words of truth upon surer grounds than
Galen or your Hippocrates furnish you with. God Almighty himself hath
given that answer, not to my prayers alone, but also to the prayers of