Page:Life of Oliver Cromwell.pdf/22

 they were in livery or not. In her dress she was equally unaffected having nothing but the plainest and simplest attire, without a jewel or ornament of any kind-The usual dinner hour of the household, was about noon, when "a man might hear a huge clattering of dishes, and noise of servitors, in rank and file marching to his table, though neither sumptuously or extraordinary furnished.” No delicacies appeared upon this frugal board: The Lady kept a strict and regular account of even the most trifling disbursement, and this document was, at stated periods, exhibited to Cromwell to be checked and doqueted by his own hand.

Amongst a thousand other scurrilities recorded, we find, that Scots collops of veal was the standing dish of the Ladly Protectress, and that she usually had marrow puddings to her breakfast; while her daughter, madam Frances, preferred a sausage made of hog's liver.

In Cromwell's character there was nothing more extraordinary: than the singular inconsistencies which it exhibited. This partly arose from hypocrisy, and partly from the natural constitution of his mind. One moment he might be found directing some great and masterly movement in his army, and the next playing off some silly piece of buffoonery with one of the meanest of his soldiers. In austere and religious bigotry he could not, to appearance; be outdone by the most zealous of the sect to which he had attached himself. He canted and prayed with some, and broke the most irreverent jests with others. It is told us, that, one day sitting at table, he had a bottle of wine brought him, of a kind which he valued so highly that he would open the bottle himself; but, in attempting to do this, the cork screw dropt from his hand. Immediately his