ehall, in the midst of a
great assembly, with ladies in the galleries. It was difficult to
say whether in this audience the Ambassador or the Protector
acquitted himself best. "The Ambassador's people," says Whitlocke,
"were all admitted into the room, and made a lane within the rails
in the midst of the room. At the upper end, upon a footpace and
carpet, stood the Protector, with a chair of state behind him, and
divers of his Council and servants about him. The Master of the
Ceremonies [still Sir Oliver Fleming] went before the Ambassador on
the left side; the Ambassador, in the middle, betwixt me and
Strickland, went up in the open lane of the room. As soon as they
[the Ambassador and his immediate suite] came within the room, at
the lower end of the lane, they put off their hats, the Ambassador
a little while after the rest; and, when he was uncovered, the
Protector also put off his hat, and answered the Ambassador's three
salutations in his coming up to him; and on the foot-pace they
saluted each other as friends usually do; and, when the Protector
put on his hat, the Ambassador put on his as soon as the other.
After a little pause, the Ambassador put off his hat, and began to
speak, and then put it on again; and, whensoever in his speech he
named the King his master, or Sweden, or the Protector, or England,
he moved his hat: especially if he mentioned anything of God, or
the good of Christendom, he put off his hat very low; and the
Protector still answered him in the like postures of civility." The
speech, which was in Swedish, but immediately translated into Latin
by the Ambassador's secretary, was to the effect that the King of
Sweden desired to propound to His Highness some matters for
additional treaty. Cromwell's reply, delivered in English, which
the Ambassador understood, was to the effect that he was very
willing to enter into "a nearer and more strict alliance" with the
King of Sweden and would nominate some persons to hear Count
Bundt's proposals.--All this had been in the last days of July
1655; but, though there had been subsequent audiences of the
Ambassador, and banquets given to him and the other chief Swedes by
the Protector himself at Hampton Court, August had passed, and
September, and October, and November, and still the actual Treaty
had been avoided. Other things engrossed the Protector--the Treaty
with France, the West-I