into a pilot.
Supreme power was the port at which he aimed, and profound worldly
wisdom, and the most acute penetration into the character and designs of
others, assisted him to steer his vessel with astonishing security
through the rocks and quicksands that opposed his course.

From the retrospective view which the narrative required, I now turn to
speak of the alarm caused by the young King's march into England. Though
Cromwell was personally in Scotland, he continued to govern in London
through his agents, and they urged the approach of the Royalists as a
pretence for resorting to severer measures with all who were hostile to
their employer. They suggested, that since the King was now openly
supported by the Presbyterians, it would be expedient that party should
defray the expences of the war. Lord Bellingham, they said, had long
been suspected of loyal propensities; and at this moment the
sequestration of his effects might answer a twofold purpose--to confirm
the fidelity of the army by discharging their arrears--and to punish the
Presbyterians through one of their leaders. Advice, sanctioned by the
approbation of the General, took the form of a command. The Parliament
readily complied with a suggestion that wore in its aspect the pretence
of relieving the well-disposed. The estates were immediately voted to
belong to the Commonwealth; the Earl was ordered into closer
confinement; and sequestrators were sent down to take possession of
Bellingham-Castle.

It was by this event that the feelings of the Countess were roused from
the long apathy of self-enjoyment. Forgetting that she had herself
furnished Cromwell with the information which first excited her
suspicions against her Lord, she loudly complained that, not content
with keeping him in prison on a charge which could not be proved, they
were now injuring his innocent family by seizing their inheritance. The
sequestrators were not sent to listen to remonstrances, but to act with
speed and decision; and Lady Bellingham now found banishment from her
home, and confiscation of all her property, were serious evils, though,
when inflicted on others, she had always viewed them with great
philosophy, considering them either as judgments on the ungodly, or
correctives of carnal appetites, to complain of which showed a want of
grace.

Her natural inconsiderateness and self-conceit did not permit her to
penetrate into the motives, or to discover the character of, Cromwe