The lord-general put on an air of surprise; he was not prepared
for such an offer, he would not load himself with so heavy a burthen. But
his reluctance yielded to the remonstrances and entreaties of Lambert and
the officers, and the instrument was laid in a chamber of the palace
for the convenience of such members as had not yet the opportunity of
subscribing their names.
[Footnote 1: Exact Relation, 25, 26. True Narrative, 3. Thurloe, i. 730. I
adopt the number given by Mansel, as he could have no motive to diminish
it.]
On the third day the signatures amounted to eighty, an absolute majority
of the whole house; on the fourth, a new constitution was published,
and Cromwell obtained the great object of his ambition,--the office and
authority, though without the title, of king.[1]
On that day, about one in the afternoon, the lord-general repaired in his
carriage from the palace to Westminster Hall,[a] through two lines of
military, composed of five regiments of foot and three of horse. The
procession formed at the door. Before him walked the aldermen, the judges,
two commissioners of the great seal, and the lord mayor; behind him the two
councils of state and of the army. They mounted to the court of Chancery,
where a chair of state with a cushion had been placed on a rich carpet.
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