5.  To Charles I. (nor will it surprise us, if we recollect his treatment of the Infanta) the court of Spain had always behaved with coldness and reserve.  The ambassador Cardenas continued to reside in London, even after the king’s execution, and was the first foreign minister whom the parliament honoured with a public audience.  He made it his chief object to cement the friendship between the commonwealth and his own country, fomented the hostility of the former against Portugal and the United Provinces, the ancient enemies of Spain, and procured the assent of his sovereign that an accredited minister from the parliament should be admitted by the court of Madrid.  The individual selected[d] for this office was Ascham, a man who, by his writings, had rendered himself peculiarly obnoxious to the royalists.  He landed[e] near Cadiz, proceeded under an escort for his protection to Madrid, and repaired[f] to an inn, till a suitable residence could be procured.  The next day,[g] while he was sitting at dinner with Riba, a renegado friar, his interpreter,

[Footnote 1:  Journals, 1650, Dec. 17; 1651, April 4, 11, 22, May 7, 13, 16; 1652, Sept. 30, Dec. 15; 1653, Jan. 5.  Whitelock, 486.  Dumont, vi. p. ii. 82.]

[Sidenote a:  A.D. 1653.  Jan. 5.] [Sidenote b:  A.D. 1651.  July 10.] [Sidenote c:  A.D. 1651.  July 14.] [Sidenote d:  A.D. 1650.  Jan. 31.] [Sidenote e:  A.D. 1650.  April 3.] [Sidenote e:  A.D. 1650.  May 26.] [Sidenote g:  A.D. 1650.  May 27.]

six Englishmen entered the house; four remained below to watch; two burst into the room, exclaiming, “Welcome, gallants, welcome;” and in a moment both the ambassador and the interpreter lay on the floor weltering in their blood.  Of the assassins, one, a servant to Cottington and Hyde, the envoys from Charles, fled to the house of the Venetian ambassador, and escaped; the other five took refuge in a neighbouring chapel, whence, by the king’s order, they were conducted to the common goal.  When the criminal process was ended, they all received judgment of death.  The crime, it was acknowledged, could not be justified; yet the public feeling was in favour of the criminals:  the people, the clergy, the foreign ambassadors, all sought to save them from punishment; and, though the right of sanctuary did not afford protection to murderers, the king was, but with difficulty, persuaded to send them back to their former asylum.  Here, while they remained within its precincts, they were safe; but the moment they left the sanctuary, their lives became forfeited to the law.  The people supplied them with provisions, and offered the means of escape.  They left Madrid; the police pursued; Sparkes, a native of Hampshire, was taken about three miles from the city; and the parliament, unable to obtain more, appeared to be content with the blood of this single victim.[1]

6.  These negotiations ended peaceably; those between the commonwealth and the United Provinces, though commenced with friendly feelings, led to hostilities.  It might have been expected that the Dutch, mindful of the glorious struggle for liberty maintained