There are a few glimpses of their consultations in the Thurloe correspondence, where also there is a hint of some hope of the compliance at last even of such old Republicans as Vane and Ludlow.

But July 1658 had come, and no one yet knew when the Parliament would meet.

It could not be expected then before the end of the year.[1] [Footnote 1: Thurloe, VII.

99, 151-152, et seq.] Before that time Oliver Cromwell was to be out of the world.

Though but in his sixtieth year, and with his prodigious powers of will, intellect, heart, and humour, unimpaired visibly in the least atom, his frame had for some time been giving way under the pressure of his ceaseless burden.