"
Colonel Ingoldsby seconded the advice Lord Howard gave, but
Richard Cromwell hearkened to neither. "I have never done
anybody any harm, and never will," said he. "will not have a
drop of blood spilt for the preservation of my greatness, which
is a burden to me." At this Lord Howard was indignant. "Do you
think," he asked, "this moderation of yours will repair the wrong
your family has committed by its elevation? Everybody knows that
by violence your father procured the death of the late king, and
kept his sons in banishment: mercy in the present state of
affairs is unreasonable. Lay aside this pussillanimity; every
moment is precious; your enemies spend the time in acting which
we waste in consulting." "Talk no more of it," answered the
Protector. "I am thankful for your friendship, but violent
counsels suit not with me."
The climax was at hand; his fall was but a question of time. "A
wonderfull and suddaine change in ye face of ye publiq," writes
Evelyn, on the 25th of April, 1659. "Ye new Protector Richard
slighted; several pretenders and parties strove for the
Government; all anarchy and confusion. Lord have mercy on us!"
Before the month of May had expired, the House of Commons
commissioned two of its members to bid Richard Cromwell leave the
palace of Whitehall, and obtain his signature to a deed wherein
he acknowledged complete submission to Parliament. His brief
inglorious reign was therefore at an end. "As with other men,"
he wrote to the House of Commons, "I expect protection from the
present Government: I do hold myself obliged to demean myself
with all the peaceableness under it, and to procure, to the
utmost of my power, that all in whom I have any interest to do
the same.
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