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 successfully opposing it (Cal. State Papers, Dom. 1667, pp. xxiv, xxvii ;, Diary, 14 June 1667). When the Dutch fleet appeared in the Thames, he was, as usual, despatched to the point of danger (cf., Last Instructions to a Painter, 1. 510). By sinking ships and raising batteries he endeavoured to protect the men-of-war laid up at Chatham, and wrote hopefully that he had made them safe (, Diary, 12 June, 20 Oct. 1667). But the negligence with which his orders were executed rendered all his exertions fruitless, for on 12 June the Dutch broke the chain across the Medway, burnt eight great ships, and captured Monck's old flagship, the Royal Charles. The narrative which Monck laid before the House of Commons proved that he did all a commander so badly seconded could do, and the house thanked him for his eminent merit in the late war (Commons' Journals, ix. 6, 11). 'The blockhead Albemarle,' comments Pepys, 'hath strange luck to be loved, though he be the heaviest man in the world, but stout and honest to his country' (Diary, 23 Oct. 1667).

This was Monck's last public service. He had been appointed first lord of the treasury when it was put into commission (24 May 1667) ; but he took little part in the business of the board. When Clarendon fell into disgrace, Monck at first tried to reconcile him with the king, but finally used his influence in parliament against him (, Continuation, §§ 1136, 1177). Towards the end of 1668 his increasing infirmities obliged him to retire permanently to New Hall. Ever since, his recovery from a dangerous fever (August 1661) he had been liable to asthma, and to swellings which finally developed into dropsy. He was suffering from these complaints when he entertained Cosmo III of Tuscany (12 June 1669), grew rapidly worse in the following December, and died on the morning of 3 Jan. 1670. He died, wrote an eye-witness, 'like a Roman general and soldier, standing almost up in his chair, his chamber like a tent open, and all his officers about him' (Monckton Papers, ed. Peacock, 1885, p. 94).

His old friend, Seth Ward, who was with him in his last moments, preached his funeral sermon ('The Christian's Victory over Death,' 4to, 1670). The grateful king took the charge of funeral and monument out of Christopher Monck's hands, and announced that he would bear the cost of both himself. Monck's funeral was consequently long delayed. 'It is almost three months,' wrote Marvell on 21 March, 'and he yet lies in the dark unburied, and no talk of him' (Works, ed. Grosart, ii. 317). The funeral, celebrated with great pomp, took place in Westminster Abbey on 30 April 1670 (, The Order used at the Solemn Interment of George, Duke of Albemarle, fol. 1670;, i. 132). The monument Charles never erected, but one was at last put up in 1720, in pursuance of the will of Christopher, second duke of Albemarle. Monck's effigy, dressed in armour, was long one of the sights of the abbey, and the contributions of the curious were usually collected in his cap. The effigy is still preserved, but no longer shown to visitors (, Memorials of Westminster, ed. 1868, pp. 228, 343;, Westmonasterium, i. 153).

A portrait of Monck, by Walker, is in the possession of the Earl of Sandwich, and one by Lely is in the Painted Hall at Greenwich ; a third, by an unknown painter, was No. 815 in the National Portrait Exhibition of 1866. The Sutherland Collection in the Bodleian Library contains about twenty engraved portraits.

Monck's appearance is thus described by Gumble : 'He was of a very comely personage, his countenance very manly and majestic, the whole fabric of his body very strong.' A French traveller who saw him in 1663 is more explicit : 'Il est petit et gros ; mais il a la physionomie de 1'esprit le plus solide, et de la conscience la plus tranquille du monde, et avec cela une froideur sans affectation, et sans orgueil, ni dedain ; il a enfin tout 1'air d'un homme fort modere et fort prudent' (Voyages de B. de Monconys, ed. 1695, II. ii. 167). An Italian, writing of six years later, describes him as ' of the middle size, of a stout and square-built make, of a complexion partly sanguine and partly phlegmatic, as indeed is generally the case with the English ; his face is fair, but somewhat wrinkled with age ; his hair is grey, and his features not particularly fine or noble ' (, Travels of the Grand Duke Cosmo III, 1821, p. 469). Of Monck's habits Gumble gives a minute account (pp. 465-75). He was very temperate, and before his sickness 'was never known to desire meat or drink till called to it, which was but once a day, and seldom drank but at his meals.' But if occasion arose he could drink deep, and when some young lords forced him to take part in a drinking bout, he saw them all under the table, and withdrew sober to the privy council (, A French Ambassador at the Court of Charles II, 1892, p. 96). Throughout he retained much of the puritan in his manners, was ' never heard to swear an oath,' and never gambled till his physicians advised it as a distraction. In religion Monck was