Marchamont Nedham, [from] Mercurius Politicus (1653)

His excellency, about one of the clock in the afternoon, came from Whitehall to Westminster to the Chancery Court attended by the Lords Commissioners of the great seal of England, Barons of the Exchequer, and judges in their robes. After them the Council of the Commonwealth, and the Lord Mayor, Aldermen, and Recorder of the City of London, in their scarlet gowns. Then came his excellency, attended with many of the chief officers of the army. A chair of state being set in the said Court of Chancery, his excellency stood on the left hand thereof, uncovered, till a large writing in parchment in the nature of an oath was read, there being the power with which his excellency was invested, and how his excellency is to govern the three nations, which his excellency accepted of, and subscribed in the face of the Court, and immediately hereupon sat down covered in the chair. The Lords Commissioners then delivered up the Great Seal of England to his excellency, and the Lord Mayor his Sword and Cap of Maintenance, all which his excellency returned immediately to them again. The Court then rose, and his excellency was attended back as aforesaid to the Banqueting House in White Hall, the Lord Mayor himself uncovered, carrying the Sword before the Protector all the way.