wing him. They arrived in London,
within a few days of each other, early in September, and were at once
committed to the Tower for having returned without orders. The news
of the failure of their enterprise had preceded them, and Cromwell
was profoundly angry. A bilious illness which he had about this time
was attributed by the French ambassador Bordeaux to his brooding over
the West-Indian mischance. He was soon himself again, however, and
Penn and Venables had nothing to fear. They were released after a
few weeks. After all, Jamaica was better than nothing.[1]

[Footnote 1: Godwin, IV. 195-203; Carlyle, III. 122-123; Guizot,
II. 226-231; Letters of Cromwell to Vice-Admiral Goodson and
Major-General Fortescue (Carlyle, III. 126-132).]

One result of the West Indian expedition was that the long-delayed
alliance with France was now a settled affair. Cardenas had his
pass-ports sent him, and on the 22nd of October, 1655, he left
England. The Court of Madrid had already recalled him, laid an
embargo on all English property in Spain, and conferred a Marquisate
and pension on the Governor of Hispaniola. On the 24th of October the
Treaty of Peace and Commerce between Cromwell and Louis XIV. was
finally signed; and within a few days afterwards there was out in
London an elaborate document entitled "_Scriptum Domini
Protectoris, ex consensu atque sententia Concilii sui editum, in quo
hujus Reipublica causa contra Hispanos justa esse demonstratur_"
("The Lord-Protector's Manifesto, published with the consent and
advice of his Council, in which the justice of the Cause of this
Commonwealth against the Spaniards is demonstrated"). Now,
accordingly, the Commonwealth entered on a new era of her history.
Cromwell and Mazarin were to be fast friends, and the Stuarts were to
have no help or countenance any more from the French crown; while, on
the other hand, there was to be war to the death between the
Commonwealth and Spain, war in the new world and war in the old, and
Spain was thus naturally to adopt the cause of Charles II., and
employ exiled English Royalism everywhere as one of her agencies,--Of
the consciousness of the Lord-Protector and the Council of this
increased complexity of the foreign relations of the Commonwealth in
consequence of the rupture with Spain there is a curious incidental
illustration. "That several volumes of the book called _The New
Atlas_ be bought for the use of the Council, and that the Globe
heretof