Royalty Restored | Page 8

health through
the special bounty of Providence. He was therefore presently able to
announce he "had very great discoveries of the Lord to him in his
sickness, and hath some certainty of being restored;" as Fleetwood, his
son-in-law, wrote on the 24th of August in this same year.
Accordingly, when one of the physicians came to him next morning,
the High Protector said, "Why do you look sad?" To which the man of
lore replied evasively, "So it becomes anyone who had the weighty care
of his life and health upon him." Then Cromwell to this purpose spoke:
"You think I shall die; I tell you I shall not die this bout; I am sure on't.
Don't think I am mad. I speak the words of truth upon surer grounds
than Galen or your Hippocrates furnish you with. God Almighty
himself hath given that answer, not to my prayers alone, but also to the
prayers of those who entertain a stricter commerce and greater intimacy
with him. Ye may have skill in the nature of things, yet nature can do
more than all physicians put together, and God is far above nature."

The doctor besought him to rest, and left the room. Outside he met one
of his colleagues, to whom he gave it as his opinion their patient had
grown light-headed, and he repeated the words which Cromwell had
spoken. "Then," said his brother- physician, "you are certainly a
stranger in this house; don't you know what was done last night? The
chaplain and all their friends being dispersed into several parts of the
palace have prayed to God for his health, and they all heard the voice of
God saying, 'He will recover,' and so they are all certain of it."
"Never, indeed, was there a greater stock of prayers going on for any
man," as Thurlow, his secretary, writes. So sure were those around him
that Providence must hearken to and grant the fulfilment of such
desires as they thought well to express, that, as Thomas Goodwin, one
of Cromwell's chaplains, said, "We asked not for the Protector's life, for
we were assured He had too great things for this man to do, to remove
him yet; but we prayed for his speedy recovery, because his life and
presence were so necessary to divers things then of great moment to be
despatched." When this Puritanical fanatic was presently disappointed,
Bishop Burnet narrates "he had the impudence to say to God, 'Thou
hast deceived us.'"
Meanwhile the Protector lay writhing in pain and terror. His mind was
sorely troubled at remembrance of the last words spoken by his
daughter Elizabeth, who had threatened judgments upon him because
of his refusal to save the King; whilst his body was grievously racked
with a tertian fever, and a foul humour which, beginning in his foot,
worked its way steadily to his heart. Moreover, some insight regarding
his future seemed given to him in his last days, for he appeared, as
Ludlow, his contemporary, states, "above all concerned for the
reproaches he saw men would cast upon his name, in tramping upon his
ashes when dead."
On the 30th of August his danger became evident even to himself, and
all hope of life left him. For hours after the certain approach of death
became undeniably certain, he remained quiet and speechless,
seemingly heedless of the exhortation and prayers of his chaplains, till
suddenly turning to one of them, he whispered, "Tell me, is it possible

to fall from grace?" The preacher had a soothing reply ready: "It is
not," he answered. "Then," exclaimed this unhappy man, whose soul
was red with the blood of thousands of his countrymen, "I am safe, for I
know I was once in grace." Anon he cries out, whilst tossing wildly on
his bed, "Lord, although I am a miserable and a wretched creature, I am
in covenant with Thee through grace, and I may and will come to Thee
for Thy people. Pardon such as desire to trample upon the dust of a
poor worm. And give us a good night if it be Thy pleasure. Amen."
It was now the 2nd of September. As the evening of that day
approached he fell into a stupor, and those who watched him thought
the end had come.
Within the darkened chamber in Whitehall all was silence and gloom;
without all was tumult and fear. Before the gates of the palace a
turbulent crowd of soldiers and citizens had gathered in impatient
anxiety. Those he had raised to power, those whose fortunes depended
on his life, were steeped in gloom; those whose principles he had
outraged by his usurpation, those whose position he had crushed by his
sway, rejoiced at heart. Not only the capital, but the whole nation,