25, 65-69, 88-90, 100, and 147-8; Whitlocke, IV.

334.] Though the prosecutions of the Royalist plotters were not concluded till the beginning of July, all real danger from the plot itself had been over in March or April, when Ormond was back in Bruges with the report that his mission had been abortive and that Cromwell was too strong.

We must go back, therefore, for the other threads of our narrative.
The death of Mr.Robert Rich, Cromwell's son-in-law since the preceding November, had occurred Feb.

16, 1657-8, only twelve days after the dissolution of the Parliament.

Cromwell, saddened by the event himself, had found time even then to write letters of condolence and comfort to the young man's grandfather, the Earl of Warwick.