hand was placed the sceptre, in the
other the globe; and behind the head an imperial crown rested on a cushion
in a chair of state. But, in defiance of every precaution it became
necessary to inter the body before the appointed day; and the coffin was
secretly deposited at night in a vault at the west end of the middle aisle
of Westminster Abbey, under a gorgeous cenotaph which had recently been
erected. The effigy was now removed to a more spacious chamber; it rose
from a recumbent to an erect posture; and stood before the spectators not
only with the emblems of royalty in its hands, but with the crown upon its
head. For eight weeks this pageant was exhibited to the public. As the day
appointed for the funeral obsequies approached, rumours of an intended
insurrection during the ceremony were circulated; but guards from the
most trusty regiments lined the streets; the procession consisting of the
principal persons in the city and army, the officers of state, the foreign
ambassadors, and the members of the protector's family, passed[a] along
without interruption; and the effigy, which in lieu of the corpse was
borne on a car, was placed, with due solemnity, in the cenotaph already
mentioned. Thus did fortune sport with the ambitious prospects of Cromwell.
The honours of royalty which she refused to him during his life, she
lavished on his remains after death; and then, in the course of a few
months, resuming her gifts, exchanged the crown for a halter, and the royal
monument in the abbey for an ignominious grave at Tyburn.[1]

[Footnote 1: Thurloe, vi. 528, 529. Carrington apud Noble, i. 360-369. The
charge for black cloth alone on this occasion was six thousand nine hundred
and twenty-nine pounds, six shillings, and fivepence,--Biblioth. Stow. ii.
448. I do not notice the childish stories about stealing of the protector's
body.]

[Sidenote a: A.D. 1658. Nov. 23.]

Before the reader proceeds to the more important transactions at home, he
may take a rapid view of the relations existing between England and foreign
states. The war which had so long raged between the rival crowns of France
and Spain was hastening to its termination; to Louis the aid of England
appeared no longer a matter of consequence; and the auxiliary treaty
between the two countries, which had been renewed from year to year, was
suffered to expire at the appointed[a] time. But in the north of Europe
there was much to claim the attention of the new pr