[799] Next day Cromwell entertained the Dutch ambassadors and their wives to a sumptuous banquet, and after dinner he passed them a paper with the remark, “We have hitherto exchanged many papers, but in my opinion this is the best.” It was the first verse of Psalm cxxxiii., which they all then sang together solemnly—
“Behold, how good a thing it is,
And how becoming well,
Together such as brethren are
In unity to dwell.”
Verbael, 419. Aitzema, iii. 927. Geddes, i. 422.
[800] Dumont, Corps Diplomatique, VI. ii. 75. Verbael of the Ambassadors, 356.
[801] XIII. Item, quod naves et navigia dictarum Fœderatarum Provinciarum, tam bellica et ad hostium vim propulsandam instructa, quam alia, quæ alicui e navibus bellicis hujus Reipublicæ in maribus Britannicis obviam dederint, vexillum suum e mali vertice detrahent, et supremum velum demittent, eo modo, quo ullis retro temporibus, sub quocunque anteriori regimine, unquam observatam fuit.
[802] Lawson, from the Fairfax, at Aberdeen, to the Admiralty Committee, 13th May 1654. Same to Blackburn, 13th May. State Papers, Dom., lxxi. 78, 79.
[803] Cockraine to the Admiralty Committee, 11th Aug. 1654. Ibid., lxxiv. 39.
[804] Heaton to the Admiralty Committee, 15th Aug. 1654. State Papers, Dom., lxxiv. 61, 62.
[805] The Skagerreef or Scaw, the north point of Jutland, Denmark. The ships were going to the north in connection with the war between Denmark and Sweden.
[806] Richard Cromwell, the Protector, to General Montague, 18th March 1659. Thurloe’s Collections, vii. 633.