This is perhaps as good a place as any at which to break off this story. But it is only one of several such places. It is in the nature of corporate bodies that their histories tend to be continuous, outlasting any single incident or individual. More epilogues could be added.

During the late 1640s and early 1650s Cromwell became, for those in Cambridge, an increasingly distant figure. Now, without question, a national figure and with numerous responsibilities elsewhere, he ceased to go back to East Anglia. But that only made the Cambridge Corporation all the more determined to retain their ties with him. He had become a much more powerful ally than they could ever have expected him to be. In May 1652 the corporation therefore appointed him as their high steward. This was tidying up unfinished business. Finch had never officially been removed and he was actually still alive, a forgotten figure from a previous age, in exile on the Continent. Once it had been decided to replace him, Cromwell, who was, of course, still technically the town's MP, was the obvious replacement. They even tried to make use of him. In the spring of 1653 French travelled to London to consult with him about the latest drainage work in the Great Level. The corporation welcomed his appointment as lord protector later that year by presenting him with a gift of plate.