lord," he said to the young Duke of Gloucester, who was serving in the Spanish army with his brother, the Duke of York, "you have never seen an army give battle?" "No, prince." "Well, you are going to see how a battle may be lost." The battle of the Dunes was in fact completely lost by the Spaniards. With two exceptions, all the officers of the regiment of Lockhart were killed or wounded. On the 25th of June, 1658, Louis XIV. entered Dunkirk, to solemnly surrender it into the hands of the English. {277} "Although the court and the army may be in despair at depriving themselves of so good a morsel," wrote Lockhart to Thurloe, "the cardinal is firm in his promises, and appears as pleased at surrendering this town into the hands of his Highness as I am to receive it. The king is also extremely obliging and polite, and he has more probity in his soul than I imagined." It was a great triumph for Cromwell, and he enjoyed it without suffering himself to be dazzled by success. An exchange of magnificent embassies--Lord Falconbridge in France on the part of the Protector, the Duke of Créquy in England on the part of Louis XIV.--completed the ratification of this alliance, which had already borne such glorious fruit and restored to England that foothold in France of which the Duke of Guise had deprived it in reconquering Calais. Cromwell began once more to think of the election of a new Parliament, which at last should sanction, support, and perpetuate his power. The confidence of the country and the money necessary for the war were equally wanting to him. His friends urged him to nominate his successor. Cromwell listened, hesitated, and did not act. He was painfully occupied by family afflictions. After three months of marriage his daughter had lost her husband, Robert Rich, who was scarcely twenty-three years of age; and Cromwell's favorite daughter, Lady Claypole, who for a long time had been dangerously ill, was growing weaker day by day. She was a person of noble and delicate feelings, of an elegant and cultivated mind, faithful to her friends, generous towards her enemies, and she had passionately returned to her father the tenderness which the latter manifested towards her. For a fortnight he did not leave her bedside, and when she died at last, on the 6th of April, 1658, all business was suspended until politics were able to obtain of the father a momentary cessation of his grief. {278}