Cromwell was snatched away by death at unawares; however the day before his decease this letter was delivered to his relations. It was not but in the last period of his life that he named his son Richard to be his successor. And when death looked in his face, remorse did not stay behind; for, according to what Ludlow relates, he seemed above all concerned for the reproaches, (he said,) men would cast upon his name, in trampling on his ashes when dead. In this temper of mind he departed this life about two in the afternoon, on the 3d of September, at the age of about fifty-five years. The news of his death being brought to those who were met together to pray for him, one Sterry stood up, and said, ‘This is good news; because if he was of great use to the people of God when he was amongst us, now he will be much more so, being ascended to heaven, there to intercede for us.’ O horrid flattery! Thus I call it, if he had been the greatest saint on earth; which he came much short of, though he was once endued with some eminent virtues. His dying day was remarkable by a most grievous tempest, not only in England, but also in the Low countries, where trees were torn out of the ground by the violence of the wind, and many ships foundered. ‘He was,’ saith Edward, Earl of Clarendon, ‘one of those persons whom even his enemies could not vilify without praising him.’ And I have heard impartial men say, that in the beginning of his achievements, he was indeed an excellent man; but being come to a high station, he soon lost that zeal for the public welfare, by which at first he seemed to be animated. The body of the deceased was laid in Somerset House, in an apartment enlightened only with wax tapers, the corpse being richly adorned. After his death, Richard, eldest son to Oliver, was proclaimed Protector of the Commonwealth; to whom E. Burrough wrote a letter, superscribed to Richard Cromwell, chosen to be protector and chief magistrate, &c. wherein he gave him some account of the most cruel sufferings of his friends; and speaking of the rulers, he saith thus: