Another of his daughters was married to LORD FALCONBERG,another to the grandson of the Earl of Warwick,and he had made his son RICHARD one of the Members of the Upper House.He was very kind and loving to them all,being a good father and a good husband;but he loved this daughter the best of the family,and went down to Hampton Court to see her,and could hardly be induced to stir from her sick room until she died.Although his religion had been of a gloomy kind,his disposition had been always cheerful.He had been fond of music in his home,and had kept open table once a week for all officers of the army not below the rank of captain,and had always preserved in his house a quiet,sensible dignity.He encouraged men of genius and learning,and loved to have them about him.MILTON was one of his great friends.He was good humoured too,with the nobility,whose dresses and manners were very different from his;and to show them what good information he had,he would sometimes jokingly tell them when they were his guests,where they had last drunk the health of the 'King over the water,'and would recommend them to be more private (if they could)another time.But he had lived in busy times,had borne the weight of heavy State affairs,and had often gone in fear of his life.He was ill of the gout and ague;and when the death of his beloved child came upon him in addition,he sank,never to raise his head again.He told his physicians on the twenty-fourth of August that the Lord had assured him that he was not to die in that illness,and that he would certainly get better.This was only his sick fancy,for on the third of September,which was the anniversary of the great battle of Worcester,and the day of the year which he called his fortunate day,he died,in the sixtieth year of his age.
He had been delirious,and had lain insensible some hours,but he had been overheard to murmur a very good prayer the day before.
The whole country lamented his death.If you want to know the real worth of Oliver Cromwell,and his real services to his country,you can hardly do better than compare England under him,with England under CHARLES THE SECOND.
He had appointed his son Richard to succeed him,and after there had been,at Somerset House in the Strand,a lying in state more splendid than sensible-as all such vanities after death are,I think-Richard became Lord Protector.He was an amiable country gentleman,but had none of his father's great genius,and was quite unfit for such a post in such a storm of parties.Richard's Protectorate,which only lasted a year and a half,is a history of quarrels between the officers of the army and the Parliament,and between the officers among themselves;and of a growing discontent among the people,who had far too many long sermons and far too few amusements,and wanted a change.At last,General Monk got the army well into his own hands,and then in pursuance of a secret plan he seems to have entertained from the time of Oliver's death,declared for the King's cause.He did not do this openly;but,in his place in the House of Commons,as one of the members for Devonshire,strongly advocated the proposals of one SIR JOHN
GREENVILLE,who came to the House with a letter from Charles,dated from Breda,and with whom he had previously been in secret communication.There had been plots and counterplots,and a recall of the last members of the Long Parliament,and an end of the Long Parliament,and risings of the Royalists that were made too soon;
And most men being tired out,and there being no one to head the country now great Oliver was dead,it was readily agreed to welcome Charles Stuart.Some of the wiser and better members said-what was most true-that in the letter from Breda,he gave no real promise to govern well,and that it would be best to make him pledge himself beforehand as to what he should be bound to do for the benefit of the kingdom.Monk said,however,it would be all right when he came,and he could not come too soon.
So,everybody found out all in a moment that the country MUST be prosperous and happy,having another Stuart to condescend to reign over it;and there was a prodigious firing off of guns,lighting of bonfires,ringing of bells,and throwing up of caps.The people drank the King's health by thousands in the open streets,and everybody rejoiced.Down came the Arms of the Commonwealth,up went the Royal Arms instead,and out came the public money.Fifty thousand pounds for the King,ten thousand pounds for his brother the Duke of York,five thousand pounds for his brother the Duke of Gloucester.Prayers for these gracious Stuarts were put up in all the churches;commissioners were sent to Holland (which suddenly found out that Charles was a great man,and that it loved him)to invite the King home;Monk and the Kentish grandees went to Dover,to kneel down before him as he landed.He kissed and embraced Monk,made him ride in the coach with himself and his brothers,came on to London amid wonderful shoutings,and passed through the army at Blackheath on the twenty-ninth of May (his birthday),in the year one thousand six hundred and sixty.Greeted by splendid dinners under tents,by flags and tapestry streaming from all the houses,by delighted crowds in all the streets,by troops of noblemen and gentlemen in rich dresses,by City companies,train-bands,drummers,trumpeters,the great Lord Mayor,and the majestic Aldermen,the King went on to Whitehall.On entering it,he commemorated his Restoration with the joke that it really would seem to have been his own fault that he had not come long ago,since everybody told him that he had always wished for him with all his heart.