One of Oliver's own friends,the DUKE OF OLDENBURGH,in sending him a present of six fine coach-horses,was very near doing more to please the Royalists than all the plotters put together.One day,Oliver went with his coach,drawn by these six horses,into Hyde Park,to dine with his secretary and some of his other gentlemen under the trees there.After dinner,being merry,he took it into his head to put his friends inside and to drive them home:a postillion riding one of the foremost horses,as the custom was.
On account of Oliver's being too free with the whip,the six fine horses went off at a gallop,the postillion got thrown,and Oliver fell upon the coach-pole and narrowly escaped being shot by his own pistol,which got entangled with his clothes in the harness,and went off.He was dragged some distance by the foot,until his foot came out of the shoe,and then he came safely to the ground under the broad body of the coach,and was very little the worse.The gentlemen inside were only bruised,and the discontented people of all parties were much disappointed.
The rest of the history of the Protectorate of Oliver Cromwell is a history of his Parliaments.His first one not pleasing him at all,he waited until the five months were out,and then dissolved it.
The next was better suited to his views;and from that he desired to get-if he could with safety to himself-the title of King.
He had had this in his mind some time:whether because he thought that the English people,being more used to the title,were more likely to obey it;or whether because he really wished to be a king himself,and to leave the succession to that title in his family,is far from clear.He was already as high,in England and in all the world,as he would ever be,and I doubt if he cared for the mere name.However,a paper,called the 'Humble Petition and Advice,'was presented to him by the House of Commons,praying him to take a high title and to appoint his successor.That he would have taken the title of King there is no doubt,but for the strong opposition of the army.This induced him to forbear,and to assent only to the other points of the petition.Upon which occasion there was another grand show in Westminster Hall,when the Speaker of the House of Commons formally invested him with a purple robe lined with ermine,and presented him with a splendidly bound Bible,and put a golden sceptre in his hand.The next time the Parliament met,he called a House of Lords of sixty members,as the petition gave him power to do;but as that Parliament did not please him either,and would not proceed to the business of the country,he jumped into a coach one morning,took six Guards with him,and sent them to the right-about.I wish this had been a warning to Parliaments to avoid long speeches,and do more work.
It was the month of August,one thousand six hundred and fifty-eight,when Oliver Cromwell's favourite daughter,ELIZABETH
CLAYPOLE (who had lately lost her youngest son),lay very ill,and his mind was greatly troubled,because he loved her dearly.