Chapter 25 of 27 · 260 words · ~1 min read

Part II

. of _Merry Drollery_, 1661. _Vide postea_, p. 232.

Our initial letters in M. D., C., pp. 3, 5, are in _fac simile_ of the original.

[2] Cromwell “seemed much afflicted at the death of his Friend the Earl of _Warwick_; with whom he had a fast friendship, though neither their humours, nor their natures, were like. And the Heir of that House, who had married his youngest Daughter [Frances], died about the same time [or, rather, two months earlier]; so that all his relation to, or confidence in that Family was at an end; the other branches of it abhorring his Alliance. His domestick delights were lessened every day; he plainly discovered that his son [in-law, who had married Mary Cromwell,] Falconbridge’s heart was set upon an Interest destructive to his, and grew to hate him perfectly. _But that which chiefly broke his Peace was the death of his daughter [Elizabeth] Claypole_; who had been always his greatest joy, and who, in her sickness, which was of a nature the Physicians knew not how to deal with, had several Conferences with him, which exceedingly perplexed him. Though no body was near enough to hear the particulars, yet her often mentioning, in the pains she endured, the blood her Father had spilt, made people conclude, that she had presented his worst Actions to his consideration. And though he never made the least show of remorse for any of those Actions, it is very certain, that _either what she said, or her death_, affected him wonderfully.” (Clarendon’s _Hist. of the Rebellion_.