ore standing in the Council Chamber be again brought thither,"
had been one of the Council's instructions to Thurloe at their
meeting of Oct. 2. Thenceforth, doubtless, both the Globe and the
Atlas were to be much in request.--More important, however, than such
fixed apparatus in the Council Room was the moving instrumentality of
envoys and diplomatists in the chief European cities and capitals.
Above all, an able ambassador in Paris was now an absolute necessity.
Nor was the fit man wanting. Among the former Royalists of the
Presbyterian section that had become reconciled to the Commonwealth,
and attached to the Protector by strong personal loyalty, was the
Scottish WILLIAM LOCKHART, member for Lanarkshire in the late
Parliament. He had been trained to arms in France in his youth, and
had since then served as a Colonel among the Scots. In this capacity
he had been in Hamilton's Army of the Engagement, defeated by
Cromwell at Preston, and in David Leslie's subsequent Army for
Charles II., defeated at Dunbar. Having received some insults from
Charles, of such a kind that he had declared that "no King on earth
should use him in that manner," he had snapped his connexion with the
Stuarts before the Battle of Worcester; and for some time after that
battle he had lived moodily in Scotland, meditating a return to
France for military employment. A visit to London and an interview
with Cromwell had retained his talents for the service of the
Protectorate, and his affection for that service had been confirmed
by his marriage, in 1654, with Robina Sewster, the orphan niece of
the Protector. Altogether Cromwell had judged him to be the very man
to represent the Protectorate at Paris, and be even a match for
Mazarin. He was now thirty-four years of age. He was nominated to the
embassy in December 1655; but he did not go to his post till the
following April.--Hardly a less important appointment was that, in
January 1655-6, of young Edward Montague to be one of the Admirals of
the Fleet. Blake, who had been cruising off Cadiz, and on whom there
was the chief dependence for action against the Spaniards at sea, had
felt the responsibility too great, and had applied for a colleague.
Penn, being in disgrace, was out of the question; and Montague, then
a member of the Protector's Council, was chosen. He had been one of
Cromwell's favourites and disciples since the days of Marston Moor
and Naseby, when, though hardly out of his teens, he ha