"When I am in Whitehall I will sign the patent, and then the Earl of Essex may command me to further service."
Still Cromwell did not speak.
'Thou clod, dost thou not understand!' cried the King in his heart.
He spoke again.
"And thy son-in-law, Henry Ireton here—he also I would raise——"
Cromwell interrupted, but in a confused and stammering fashion.
"Sir—you have mistaken—I am no cadet of the first Earl of Essex's family—nay—or so remote; it matters not—I never thought of it—this was not what I came to speak of—yet what I would have said is gone from me." His head fell on his breast despondently; he made a hopeless little gesture with his gloved right hand. "Let it pass," he finished.
"For me," said Henry Ireton. "I would that Your Majesty had not spoken of this."
Charles could not keep all scorn from his smile as he replied—
"We will discuss these things at Westminster."