THE SALISBURY LINE 225
great ministers of State in the eyes of Christendom : whose wisdom and virtues died with them, and their children only inherited their titles. He had been admitted of the Council to King James ; from which time he con- tinued so obsequious to the Court, that he never failed in over-acting all that he was required to do. No act of power was ever proposed, which he did not advance, and execute his part with the utmost rigour. No man so great a tyrant in his country, or was less swayed by any motives of justice or honour. He was a man of no words, except in hunting and hawking, in which he only knew how to behave himself. In matters of State and council he always concurred in what was proposed by the King and cancelled and repaired all those transgressions, by con- curring in all that was proposed against him, as soon as any such propositions were made."
After describing how he joined the King at York and returned in haste to London, he proceeds :
" And when the war was ended, and Cromwell had put down the House of Peers, he got himself to be chosen a member of the House of Commons ; and sat with them, as of their own body ; and was esteemed accordingly. In a word, he became so despicable to all men, that he will hardly enjoy the ease which Seneca bequeathed him : His egregiis majoribus ortus est, qualiscunque est, sub umbra suorum lateat ; ut loca sordida repercussa sole illus- trantur, ita inertes major um suorum luce resplendeant." x
" My simple Lord Salisbury," as Pepys calls him, lived to see the birth of his great-grandson, afterwards the fourth Earl, and died in 1668 at the ripe age of seventy-seven. He had a large family, eight sons and five daughters in all. Of
1 History of the Rebellion, ed. 1826, III. 559. C. Q
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