=Source.=--_Sir Philip Warwick's Memoirs_, 1701. P. 247.
I have no mind to give an ill character of Cromwell; for in his
conversation towards me he was ever friendly; tho' at the latter end
of the day finding me ever incorrigible, and having some inducements
to suspect me a tamperer, he was sufficiently rigid. The first time
that ever I took notice of him, was in the very beginning of the
Parliament held in November, 1640, when I vainly thought myself a
courtly young Gentleman: (for we Courtiers valued our selves much
upon our good clothes). I came one morning into the House well clad,
and perceived a Gentleman speaking (whom I knew not) very ordinarily
apparelled; for it was a plain cloth suit, which seemed to have been
made by an ill country-tailor; his linen was plain, and not very
clean; and I remember a speck or two of blood upon his little band,
which was not much larger than his collar; his hat was without a
hat-band: his stature was of a good size, his sword stuck close to
his side, his countenance swoln and reddish, his voice sharp and
untunable, and his eloquence full of fervour; for the subject matter
would not bear much of reason; it being in behalf of a servant of
Mr. Prynne's, who had dispersed libells against the Queen for her
dancing and such innocent and courtly sports; and he aggravated the
imprisonment of this man by the Council Table unto that height, that
one would have believed the very Government itself had been in great
danger by it. I sincerely profess it lessened much my reverence unto
that great council; for he was very much hearkened unto. And yet I
lived to see this very Gentleman, whom out of no ill will to him
I thus describe,--by multiplied good successes, and by real (but
usurped) power, (having had a better tailor, and more converse among
good company)--in my own eye, when for six weeks together I was a
prisoner in his Serjeant's hands, and daily waited at Whitehall,
appear of a great and majestic deportment and comely presence. Of
him therefore I will say no more, but that verily I believe, he was
extraordinarily designed for those extraordinary things, which one
while most wickedly and facinorously he acted, and at another as
successfully and greatly performed.