n his account both at Hampton Court and at Whitehall, they did not so
much pray for his health, as give thanks for the undoubted pledges which
they had received of his recovery. He himself was overheard offering
up his addresses to Heaven; and so far had the illusions of fanaticism
prevailed over the plainest dictates of natural morality, that he
assumed more the character of a mediator, in interceding for his people,
than that of a criminal, whose atrocious violation of social duty had,
from every tribunal, human and divine, merited the severest vengeance.

* Bates. See also Ihurloe, vol. vii. p. 356, 416.

Meanwhile, all the symptoms began to wear a more fatal aspect; and
the physicians were obliged to break silence, and to declare that the
protector could not survive the next fit with which he was threatened.
The council was alarmed. A deputation was sent to know his will with
regard to his successor His senses were gone, and he could not now
express his intentions. They asked him whether he did not mean that his
eldest son, Richard, should succeed him in the protectorship. A simple
affirmative was, or seemed to be, extorted from him. Soon after, on the
third of September, that very day which he had always considered as the
most fortunate for him, he expired, A violent tempest, which immediately
succeeded his death, served as a subject of discourse to the vulgar. His
partisans, as well as his enemies, were fond of remarking this event;
and each of them endeavored, by forced inferences, to interpret it as a
confirmation of their particular prejudices.

The writers attached to the memory of this wonderful person, make
his character, with regard to abilities, bear the air of the most
extravagant panegyric: his enemies form such a representation of his
moral qualities as resembles the most virulent invective. Both of them,
it must be confessed, are supported by such striking circumstances in
his conduct and fortune, as bestow on their representation a great air
of probability. "What can be more extraordinary," it is said,[*] "than
that a person of private birth and education, no fortune, no eminent
qualities of body, which have sometimes, nor shining talents of mind,
which have often, raised men to the highest dignities, should have the
courage to attempt, and the abilities to execute, so great a design as
the subverting one of the most ancient and best established monarchies
in the world? That he should have the p