The members slunk away to
their homes, where they sought by submission to purchase the forbearance
of their new master; and their partisans, if partisans they had, reserved
themselves in silence for a day of retribution, which came not before
Cromwell slept in his grave. The royalists congratulated each other on an
event which they deemed a preparatory step to the restoration of the king;
the army and navy, in numerous addresses, declared that they would live or
die, stand or fall, with the lord-general, and in every part of the country
the congregations of the saints magnified the arm of the Lord which had
broken the mighty, that in lieu of the sway of mortal men, "the fifth
monarchy, the reign of Christ, might be established upon earth."[2]
It would, however, be unjust to the memory of those who exercised the
supreme power after the death of the king, not to acknowledge that there
existed among them men capable of wielding with energy the destinies of a
great empire. They governed only four years; yet, under their auspices, the
conquests of Ireland and Scotland were achieved, and a navy was
[Footnote 1: See the several accounts in Whitelock, 554; Ludlow, ii. 19 23;
Leicester's Journal, 139; Hutchinson, 332; Several Proceedings, No.
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