A Mirror of Faith :: :: University of Virginia Library

There are signs on the earth, there are signs in the sky:
There's the tempest below, and the whirlwind on high:
To her last long account, from her cottage of clay,
The soul of the Tyrant is passing away!

The whirlwind was loud at the hour of his birth,—
He came, like a whirlwind, to trouble the earth;
And now, through his groans, and the gasps of his breath
The whirlwind is loud round the chamber of death.

'Twas his birth-day; the day of his fortunate star:
The day of dark Worcester, and bloody Dunbar:
When his foes fell before him like leaves in the blast,
But a mightier than he stands beside him at last!

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There are balsams of virtue his sickness to heal,
There are waters whose magic could work to his weal:
They will not regard them—they will not apply,
For 'tis written above that the Tyrant must die!

By treason and rapine he climb'd towards his Throne,
And the Crown that he long'd for, but called not his own:
By the Puritan fear'd, by the Loyal abhorr'd,
His safety was terror, his sceptre the sword.

Yet now, as the season draws near he must part,
There is hope in his eye, there is peace in his heart:
And the chaplains pray low in the canopied room,
So king-like in silence, so lordly in gloom:

Yet once, as if fear in his bosom held sway,
He hath asked, “If the faithful can e'er fall away?”
And joy at the answer flush'd out in his face,—
“Then I needs must be saved, for I once was in grace!”

132

Oh, 'tis fearful to witness the terrors that rend
The heart of a sinner approaching his end:
His forecasts of Judgment, his memories of ill;
But the peace of a Cromwell is fearfuller still!

It is well known that Cromwell regarded September the 2nd as a fortunate day, and had often referred to it as such.

Cromwell's disease was a Tertian Ague. In all probability the Peruvian Bark would have saved his life. But this medicine was regarded, at its first introduction, with great jealousy by physicians. When King Charles the Second was labouring under an ague, his physicians were most reluctant to administer it; and it was only done on his positive command. It probably saved his life.