speed I can. To which purpose I have sent the bearer, Dr. Petty, unto you, as one whom I can best trust, now my nearest concernments are at stake. Wherefore I desire you to show your kindness to me in being free and plain with him, as to such advice as you think concerns my preservation, (for I am well contented to aim at nothing else), and especially how I shall behave myself in reference to the summonses for my coming over, when I receive them. I have made so good use of my time, as I have not money to bring me. Pray give the bearer access to you upon my account; he does not use to be tedious or impertinent. It concerns me to have one that I can trust, to have such an access to you. I hope that you will not look upon him, as to me, under the character and representation that Sir Hierome Sankey and some others may give of him; but rather as one, that hath been faithful and affectionate unto me, and I may say unto yourself also; and one who I think, notwithstanding all that is said, is a very honest man. I shall not trouble you with much more. He can best acquaint you with what concerns myself, upon which single account I have gotten him to come for England. As for the public differences, I never perceive him forward or busy in any.
'Dear brother, these are times of tryall, both as to our own hearts and our friends.'[1]
When Dr. Petty arrived in London, he found the Republican reaction at full height. A general onslaught had commenced on the Cromwellian party, which was driven from place and power. Henry Cromwell was recalled from Ireland, and Ludlow, with two other Parliamentary Commissioners, was sent over to replace him. Dr. Petty was dismissed from all his appointments as a matter of course. The Parliament was overawed by the officers of the army, and Sankey became one of the most prominent and violent of their mouthpieces in the meetings at Wallingford House. Through his friends in
- ↑ H. Cromwell to Fleetwood, June, 1659; Thurloe vii. p. 684. In the Mercurius Politicus, June 16 to 23, 1659, the arrival of Dr. Petty and Col. Edmund Temple as 'the bearer of letters' is mentioned.
