_Peace in her car_; It will be seen that the Rospigliosi _Aurora_, Guido's one inspired work, has been here before the writer's memory. _On thyself thrice turn_; The civil wars of the Barons, the Roses, and the Commonwealth. _He saw not_; Ranke's dispassionate summary of the attempted 'arrest of five members,' which has been always held one of the King's most arbitrary steps, as it was, perhaps, the most fatal, illustrates the view here taken: 'The prerogative of the Crown, _in the sense of the early kings_' (unconditional right of arrest, in cases of treason), 'and the privilege of Parliament, _in the sense of coming times_, were directly contradictory to each other': (viii: 10). _Till they drank the poison_; A sentence weighty with his judicial force may be here quoted from Hallam:--'The desire of obtaining or retaining power, if it be ever sought as a means, is soon converted into an end.' The career of the Long Parliament supports this judgment: of it 'it may be said, I think, with not greater severity than truth, that scarce two or three public acts of justice, humanity, or generosity, and very few of political wisdom and courage, are recorded of them from their quarrel with the King to their expulsion by Cromwell': (_Const. Hist_. ch. x: Part i). _The chrisom_; Name for the white cloth in which babes were veiled immediately after Baptism. _Artist in plots_; See Ranke (viii: 5) for Pym's skilful use of a supposed plot, (the main element in which was known by himself to be untrue), in older to terrify the House and ensure the destruction of Stafford; and Hallam (ch. ix).--Admiration of Pym may be taken as a proof that a historian is ignorant of, or faithless to, the fundamental principles of the Constitution:--as the worship of Cromwell is decisive against any man's love of liberty, whatever his professions. _O King_; 'Cromwell, like so many other usurpers, felt his position too precarious, or his vanity ungratified, without the name which mankind have agreed to worship.' The conversations recorded by Whitelock are conclusive on this point: 'and, though compelled to decline the crown, he undoubtedly did not lose sight of the object for the short remainder of his life' (_Hallam_). _The sky by a veil_; See _Appendix_ D. _And he walks_; 'He said on one occasion, _He goes furthest who knows not whither he is going_': (Ranke: xii: 1). _Purrs about God_; Examples, (the tone of which justifies this phrase, and might deserve a severer), may be found by the curious in the frailties of poor human nature, _passim_, in Cromwell's 'Letters and Speeches,' for which, (although not always edited with precise accuracy), we are indebted to Mr. T. Carlyle. But the view which he takes of his 'hero,' whether in regard of many particular facts alleged or neglected, or of the general estimate of Cromwell as a man,--as it appears to the author plainly untenable in face of proved historical facts, is here rejected.