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at an end, it may have been fairly supposed to have expired. Many officers therefore were now returned, and among them, Ludlow, Ireton, and Fairfax. The two former were republicans, who emulated the old Romans in the severity of their character, and looked upon it as a virtue to be inexorable. Ludlow has related of himself that, meeting in a skirmish with an old acquaintance and schoolfellow who was on the king's side, he expressed his sorrow at seeing him in that party, and offered to exchange a shot with him. He relates also that when he was defending Warder Castle, one of the besiegers who was killed, said just before he expired, that he saw his own brother fire the musket by which he received his mortal wound; and instead of expressing a human feeling at his frightful example of the horrors of civil war, he adds that it might probably be, his brother having been one of those who defended the breach where he was shot; "but if it were so, he might justly do it by the laws of God and man, it being done in the discharge of his duty and in his own defence." With such deliberate inhumanity did Ludlow in old age and retirement comment upon a fact, which, even in the fever of political enthusiasm and the heat of battle, ought to have made him shudder.

That party, who would have been satisfied with the establishment of a presbyterian church, and the enjoyment of offices, honors, and emoluments,

under a king whom they wished to preserve only as a puppet for their own purposes, would now gladly have reduced an army of which they began to stand in fear for since it had been new-modelled, the independents had obtained the ascendency there; and those principles which Cromwell at the first avowed to his own troop, were now becoming common among the soldiers. They had been taught to believe that the king was an enemy and a tyrant and drawing from false premises a just conclusion, they reasoned that, because it was lawful to fight against him, it was right also to destroy him. They saw through the hypocrisy of the presbyterians, whom they called with sarcastic truth the dissembly men; and being led by their own situation to speculate upon the origin of dignities and powers, they asked what were the lords of England but William the Conqueror's colonels? or the barons but his majors? or the knights but his captains? The parliament had just reason to fear an army in this temper; and the army had equal reason to complain of the parliament, because their pay was in arrears: they were therefore to be disbanded, the commissioned officers to receive debentures for what was due to them, and the non-commissioned officers and privates a promise, secured upon the excise. But men who had arms in their hands were easily persuaded that they might use them with as much justice to

intimidate the parliament, as to subdue the king. That they might have their deliberative assemblies also, under whose authority they might proceed, they appointed a certain number of officers which they called the general council of officers, who were to act as their house of peers; and the common soldiers chose three or four from every regiment, mostly corporals or sergeants, few or none above the rank of an ensign, who were called agitators, and were to be the army's house of commons. The president of these agitators was a remarkable man, by name James Berry; he had originally been a clerk in some iron-works. In the course of the revolution he sat in the upper house. He was one of the principle actors in pulling down Richard Cromwell; became afterward one of the council of state; was imprisoned after the restoration as one of the four men whom Monk considered the most dangerous; and finally, being liberated, became a gardener, and finished his life in obscurity and peace.

Both the council of officers and the agitators were composed of Cromwell's creatures, or of men who, being thorough fanatics, did his work equally well in stupid sincerity. They presented a bold address to parliament declaring that they would neither be divided nor disbanded till their full arrears were paid, and demanding that no member of the army should be tried by any other judicatory

than a council of war. "They did not," they said, "look upon themselves as a band of janizaries, hired only to fight the battles of the parliament; they had voluntarily taken up arms for the liberty of the nation of which they were a part, and before they laid those arms down they would see that end well provided for." The men who presented this address behaved with such audacity at the bar of the house of commons, that there were some who moved for their committal: but they had friends even there to protect them, one of whom replied that he would have them committed indeed, but it should be to the best inn in the town, where plenty of good sack and sugar should be provided for them. As the dispute proceeded, the army held louder language, and the parliament took stronger measures, causing some of the boldest among the soldiers to be imprisoned. Cromwell supported the house in this, expressed great indignation at the insolence of the troops, and complained even with tears, that there had even been a design of killing him, so odious had he been made to the army by men who were desirous of again imbruing the nation in blood! Yet he had said to Ludlow that "it was a miserable thing to serve a parliament, to whom let a man be never so faithful, if one pragmatical fellow among them rise up and asperse him, he shall never wipe it off; whereas," said he, "when one

serves under a general, he may do as much service and yet be free from all blame and envy." And during these very discussions he whispered. in the house to Ludlow, "These men will never leave till the army pull them out by the ears." If Ludlow suspected any sinister view in Cromwell, he was himself too much engaged with the army to notice it at that time. But there were other members whose opposite interest opened their eyes; and who, knowing that Cromwell was the secret director of those very measures against which he inveighed, resolved to send him to the tower, believing that if he were once removed, the army might easily be reduced to obedience. They estimated his authority more justly than they did their own. It appears that he expected a more violent contest than actually ensued; for he and many of the independents privately removed their effects from London, " leaving," says Hollis, "city and parliament as marked out for destruction." He had timely notice of the design against him, and on the very morning when they proposed to arrest him, he set out for the army: but still preserving that dissimulation which he never laid aside where it could possibly be useful, he wrote to the house of commons, saying, that his presence was necessary to reclaim the soldiers, who had been abused by misinformation; and desiring that the general (Fairfax), and such other officers

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