his watch in his hand, he repaired to the cardinal, and demanded in a peremptory manner, a written order for his being put in pofsefsion of Dunkirk, which if it was not complied with in an hour, he had orders to acquaint him, that his master looked upon the terms of the treaty as violated, and consequently made null; and in that case he fhould retire to his camp, and take his measures accordingly, which would be to dispatch an exprefs to Don John, the Spanish general, to acquaint him that he was ready to act in conjunction with him against the arms of France. The cardinal thought this only a high mode of expressing himself; and asked my lord ambassador in banter, whether his Excellency had slept well last night, or whether he was entirely awake? The ambassador answered him, that he believed he was awake at the time, and had never slept quieter in his life; and coolly drew out his instructions in the hand writing of the ProThe astonished cardinal, who knew Cromwell's decisive manner of acting, and which could not be baffled by any arts of finefse, began now to listen with attention, and endeavoured to soften the peremptory demand of the ambassador, who, with the utmost coolness, replied, that he should be obliged religiously to obey the injunctions of his master, His emnience perceiving his firmnefs, was compelled to give up the place within the allotted time, The French troops evacuated the town, and Sir William and his forces, took pofsefsion of the place in name of the Protector;-he himself having the ho nour of receiving the keys in person from Lewis.

tector.

This important place, which Sir William's own good conduct had acquired, was intrusted to his care; yet, though he had the government of it, and

was declared gene al of all the English forces in France, his civil depa rment as ambassador was continued to him. He continued during the remainder of Oliver's protectorate, to have the same sway in the court of France; and it is certain no abafsador ever knew the French court better, nor was more feared and courted than him, both from the dread that nation stood in of Oliver, as well as their sense of the merit, attention, and watchfulnefs of his representative.

Sir William was continued in all his employments by Richard, and by the parliament of England, till the restoration of Charles It During this period several applications were made to him, in favour of the exiled monarch, which he always steadily refused to comply with; and of course was deprived of his command at the restoration. France, on this reverse of fortune, offered him a marfhall's staff, which he nobly declined. He came over to England, not without apprehensions of severe treatment for thẹ part he had acted under the protectorate; but by the intermediation of lord Middleton, and others, he was more graciously received than he expected; and was suffered to retire to his estate in Scotland. There he tried to introduce the English mode of agriculture, not entirely without succefs; but the country was not yet in such a state of tranquillity as to enable the people to avail themselves fully of these benefits. He was after some time called up to court, and once more appointed ambassador to France; and though not with an unlimited power of money as before, with very high appointments. He there acted with the same dignity and propriety as before, in as

far as regarded himself; but with diminished splendor, on account of the unsteady meannefs and duplicity of the prince, his employer.

The embassies, the military transactions, and the private anecdotes of this truly great man, would fill several volumes if they were all collected together; and altogether would form a monument highly honourable to the memory of a man, who, in innumerable trying situations, was always found to act with an integrity, a coolness, an intrepidity, and a Christian disposition of mind, that never admitted of even an imputation of blame. During the varied transactions that occurred in those turbulent times, he espoused different sides, as circumstances seemed to point out as proper; but never was suspected to vary from mean or interested motives, and there- : fore he continued to be respected by all. He was upon the whole, one of the greatest characters as a soldier and negociator, that ever Britain produced.

FROM ISABELLA TO ALBERT. LETTER III.

DEAR BROTHER, : A

I HAVE now got a new piece of information to communicate to you, that I cannot defer one moment. I expect in a short time to be able to write to you like a philosopher. But I must not waste my paper with idle observations ;-I have more to say than will fill it all; so I must write small small!-just as if I were to write the Lord's prayer in the size of a fhilling.

We had a visit yesterday from Mrs Bruhl, a most extraordinary woman!-She has so much life,-so much

vivacity, so much good humour,-so much wit,and so much kindness !—And these different quali ties come to strike one, succefsively, in such quick rotation, that I think it is impofsible to see her, for the first time, and not be confounded by a crowd of contradictory ideas that press upon my mind. I had never seen her before, and therefore put on my prim airs; but she was so frank, so obliging, so kind, that I recovered myself in a moment, and found myself as much at ease with her in five minutes, as I fhould have been with some others in five years. What chiefly attached me to her, was the interest fhe took in poor me. She led me about with her every where, inquired into my situation with se much earnestnefs, and with such a kind sort of sympathetic interest, and so heartily hated the boarding school,—and so warmly admired all this family, that I could have taken her into my heart. Methought I felt it open, as if it were to receive her, and hold her fast-Yet, after all, I feel myself still more tenderly attached to dear, dear Mrs Drury! who, to goodness that has no parallel, unites the mildest manners, and the gentlest complacency of disposition.She is certainly the best woman that breathes!

--

Mrs Bruhl seems to have a more active, or if you will, a more restless state of mind. Her thoughts are rapid; her eyes exprefs an eager kind of emotion, that, if I were not convinced of the goodness of her heart, from the character given of her by Mrs D. as well as her kindness to myself, I should not have thought her imprefsively engaging. Mrs D. tells me the has come through such scenes of distress as VOL. Xii

B

would have broken the heart of half a dozen other women; but he still retains her vivacity; and in very trying situations has acted in the most exemplary manner. I am persuaded that even you, with all your knowledge of the human character, would think he was an original, the like of whom, in all respects, you had never met with.

It was not long before fhe discovered that I had a philosophical brother, who was the idol of my affection. My little companion, Mary, who is an arch little monkey when she meets with a proper opportunity of displaying her humour, rallied me in her own peculiar way, about the anxiety I discovered to find out some objects in natural history for "mydeer dee-eer bro-ther!" fhe told of the weeds that F had gathered on the hills, which I stored up with as. much care as rare articles, and which fhe had discovered to be the most common things. "We have been hunting," says he to Mrs B. " these three weeks for some non descript vegetable or animal, in vain. Pray do, dear Mrs Bruhl, help us to something of that sort, otherwise poor Isabella will fall into the dumps, and we shall get nothing but hums and hahs from her for a month to come."

'O' says Mrs B.

you have come in the luckiest moment you ever could have hit upon; for on my way hither yesterday, I fell in with a brute that is not, I believe, at all known in Scotland. It is quite peculiar to England, where it is so exclusively indiginous, that it cannot live, I am told, for any length of time any where else. It is a most singular creature; and what is most surprising, though it be