"[3]
In a few days, however, their confidence was shaken. For change of air he
had removed to Whitehall, till the palace of St. James's should be ready
for his reception. There his fever became[a] a double tertian, and his
strength rapidly wasted away. Who, it was asked, was to succeed him? On the
day of his inauguration he had written the name of his successor within a
cover sealed with the protectorial arms; but that paper had been lost,
or purloined, or destroyed. Thurloe undertook to suggest to him a second
nomination; but the condition of the protector, who, if we believe him,
was always insensible or delirious, afforded no opportunity. A suspicion,
however, existed, that he had private reasons for declining to interfere in
so delicate a business.[4]
The 30th of August was a tempestuous day: during the night the violence of
the wind increased till it blew a hurricane. Trees were torn from their
roots in the park, and houses unroofed in the city. This extraordinary
occurrence at a moment when it was thought that the protector was dying,
could not fail
[Footnote 1: Thurloe, vii. 321, 340, 354, 355. Bates, Elench. 413.]
[Footnote 2: Thurloe, vii. 355, 367, 376.]
[Footnote 3: Ludlow, ii. 151.]
[Footnote 4: Thurloe, 355, 365, 366.
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