Cromwell was sincerely attached to his children; but,
among them, he gave the preference to his daughter Elizabeth Claypole.
The meek disposition of the young woman possessed singular charms for the
overbearing spirit of her father; and her timid piety readily received
lessons on mystical theology from the superior experience of the
lord-general.[2] But she was now dying of a most painful and internal
complaint, imperfectly understood by her physicians; and her grief for the
loss of her infant child added to the poignancy of her sufferings. Cromwell
abandoned the business of state that he might hasten to Hampton Court, to
[Footnote 1: So says Clarendon (iii. 646), Bates (Elench. 343), and Welwood
(p. 94); but their testimony can prove nothing more than that such reports
were current, and obtained credit, among the royalists.]
[Footnote 2: The following passage from one of Cromwell's letters to his
daughter Ireton, will perhaps surprise the reader. "Your sister Claypole is
(I trust in mercye) exercised with some perplexed thoughts, shee sees her
owne vanitye and carnal minde, bewailinge itt, shee seeks after (as I hope
alsoe) that w'ch will satisfie, and thus to bee a seeker, is to be of the
best sect next a finder, and such an one shall every faythfull humble
seeker bee at the end.
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