“All this would be very good sense, if addressed to another,” replied Raymond, moodily, “con the lesson yourself, and you, the first peer of the land, may become its sovereign. You the good, the wise, the just, may rule all hearts. But I perceive, too soon for my own happiness, too late for England’s good, that I undertook a task to which I am unequal. I cannot rule myself. My passions are my masters; my smallest impulse my tyrant. Do you think that I renounced the Protectorate (and I have renounced it) in a fit of spleen? By the God that lives, I swear never to take up that bauble again; never again to burden myself with the weight of care and misery, of which that is the visible sign.

“Once I desired to be a king. It was in the heyday of youth, in the pride of boyish folly. I knew myself when I renounced it. I renounced it to gain⁠—no matter what⁠—for that also I have lost. For many months I have submitted to this mock majesty⁠—this solemn jest. I am its dupe no longer. I will be free.