birthday, he entered London, "all the ways from Dover thither being so
full of people, and acclamations, as if the whole kingdom had been
gathered." At Greenwich he was met by the Lord Mayor and Aldermen "with
all such protestations of joy as can hardly be imagined." All the city
companies lined the road from London Bridge to Temple Bar, "giving loud
thanks to God for his majesty's presence."

At Whitehall "the two Houses of Parliament cast themselves at his feet
with all vows of affection to the world's end." Well might the King
exclaim, as he saw the fervency of welcome, "It had been his own fault he
had been absent so long; for he saw nobody that did not protest he had
ever wished for his return." Hyde saw a dramatic accompaniment of this
happy consummation of a long and doubtful struggle, in the death, within
three months, of the chief Ministers of France and Spain--Cardinal Mazarin
and Don Lewis de Haro--whose schemes of policy it seemed to ruin, and who
saw in it the failure of their machinations.

In the beginning of June, Hyde took his place as Speaker of the House of
Lords, and presided in the Court of Chancery. To the business of that
Court a great part of his labours were now to be devoted; but while he
studiously avoided the name of First Minister, he exercised, in addition
to his judicial functions, far more of the authority of supreme Minister
than fell to the lot of any officer of the Crown for some generations
after his day. For a few years he seemed to enjoy the unbounded confidence
of the King; but that confidence he had earned by no subserviency, and in
spite of marked lack of sympathy. For the first time in our history a man
of no high birth or commanding station, to whom the personal favour of his
sovereign had so far brought nothing but hardship and exile, found himself
indisputably marked out, by a long course of services devotedly given, for
what was virtually the position of First Minister of the Crown. His