repaired to the palace of Hampton Court, where apartments had been fitted up for him and his family at the public expense.  In parliament it was proposed that the 3rd of September should be kept a holiday for ever in memory of his victory; a day was appointed for a general thanksgiving; and in addition to a former grant of lands to the amount of two thousand five hundred pounds per annum, other lands of the value of four thousand pounds were settled on him in proof of the national gratitude.  Cromwell received these honours with an air of profound humility.  He was aware of the necessity of covering the workings of ambition within his breast with the veil of exterior self-abasement; and therefore professed to take no merit to himself, and to see nothing in what he had done, but the hand of the Almighty, fighting in behalf of his faithful servants.[1]

[Footnote 1:  Whitelock, 509.  Ludlow, i. 372.  Heath, 301.  Journals, Sept. 6, 9, 11, 19.  “Next day, 13th, the common prisoners were brought through Westminster to Tuthill fields—­a sadder spectacle was never seen except the miserable place of their defeat—­and there sold to several merchants, and sent to the Barbadoes.”—­Heath, 301.  Fifteen hundred were granted as slaves to the Guinea merchants, and transported to the Gold Coast in Africa.—­Parl.  Hist. iii. 1374.]

CHAPTER V.

Vigilance Of The Government—­Subjugation Of Ireland—­Of
Scotland—­Negotiation With Portugal—­With Spain—­With The
United Provinces—­Naval War—­Ambition Of Cromwell—­Expulsion Of
Parliament—­Character Of Its Leading Members—­Some Of Its Enactments.

In the preceding chapter we have followed the fortunes of Charles Stuart, from his landing in Scotland to his defeat at Worcester and his escape to the continent; we may now look back and direct our attention to some of the more important events which occurred during the same period, in England and Ireland.

1.  The reader is aware that the form of government established in England was an oligarchy.  A few individuals, under the cover of a nominal parliament, ruled the kingdom with the power of the sword.  Could the sense of the nation have been collected, there cannot be a doubt that the old royalists of the Cavalier, and the new royalists of the Presbyterian party, would have formed a decided majority; but they were awed into silence and submission by the presence of a standing army of forty-five thousand men; and the maxim that “power gives right” was held out as a sufficient reason why they should swear fidelity to the commonwealth.[1] This numerous army,

[Footnote 1:  See Marchamont Nedham’s “Case of the Commonwealth Stated.” 4to.  London, 1650.]