"Sir Henry Vane was of very ordinary parts by Nature, and had not cultivated them at all by art, for he was illiterate. But being of a stirring and boisterous disposition, very industrious and very bold, he still wrought himself into some employment.... His malice to the Earl of Strafford transported him to all imaginable thoughts of revenge, ... and that disposed him to sacrifice his honour and faith and his Master's interest, that he might ruin the Earl, and was buried himself in the same ruin; for which, being justly chastised by the King and being turned out of his service, he was left to his own despair.... He grew into the hatred and contempt of those who had made most use of him; and dyed in universal reproach, and not more contemn'd by any of his enemies than by his own son; who had been his principal conductor to destruction."--(_Clarendon's History of the Rebellion_, vol. ii., p. 132).
Sir Harry Vane, the younger, "was a man of extraordinary parts.... He was chosen to cozen a whole nation which was thought to excel in craft and cunning,* which he did with notable pregnancy and dexterity."--(_Clarendon's History of the Rebellion_, vol. ii., p. 233). "He totally ousted Sir William Russel. He was a discontent during all Oliver's and Richard's government. He is, no doubt, a man of much religion, and would have become one of the rulers in Israel, if the intended match between his son and Lambert's daughter had not been spoiled by the restitution of the Rump."--(_Mystery of the Good Old Cause._)
[Illustration: Three of Hearts. Cromwell pypeth unto Fairfax.]
[Illustration: Three of Clubs. Bulstrod and Whitlock present to Oliver the Instruments of Governm^t.]
[Illustration: Three of Spades. H. Martin defend^s Ralph who design'd to kill the King.]
[Illustration: Three of Diamonds. Simonias slandring y^e High Preist to get his Place.]
Cromwell is here represented playing the pipe and tabor to Fairfax, who is performing a Morris dance. This dance was brought to England in the reign of Edward III., it is said by John of Gaunt. It was originally a military dance, in which bells were jingled, and swords clashed. The word _Morris_ is a corruption of _Moorish_. In ancient times it used to be danced by five men and a boy, but in the reign of Elizabeth, we have an instance of Kempe, one of Shakespeare's colleagues at the Globe Theatre, having danced alone all the way from London to Norwich.--(_Kemp's nine daies wonder_, reprinted in Goldsmid's _Collectanea Adamantæa_, No. 29). Thomas, Lord Fairfax, warmly espoused the cause of the Parliament when the rupture with the King took place. He was, however, opposed to the execution of the King, and became a warm advocate of the Restoration. He died in 1671.