their horns and put up their Daggers for fear of a further discovery Thus you see of what Nature this Canibal Saint was Ex pede Herculem by the foot-steps of this Monster you may guess at the proportion of his whole body Yet all these his barbarous actions fell short of those committed against the pretious life of his Royal Soveraign Charles the first But Ne fandum scelus majori scelere ad impletur every hainous offence strives to secure it self by a more hainous crime for When Tyrants Swords in blood are dy'd The Scabbards they must throw aside This was Machivils rule and Okeys practice For Cromwel having before well flesht this Beagle of his in cruelties he is now made one of the pack or rather Butcher-row of Judges for the Tryal of His Majesly and by his Master hallowed on to hone in full cry after his death In which he shewed himself so active an instrument that finding his power he resolve to improve it to the uttermost and to deal with the King as it fareth with a Traveller sallen into the hands of unmerciful Thieves who first seized on his purse and then to secure themselves take away his life So he being a Sharer with others in Crown Lands that he might prevent the future revenge of his Treasons and Rebellions and preserve his ill-gotten estate at last determines to seal his anjust Title with the innocent blood of his natural Soveraign Not did his implacable Malice against his Majesty rest here for when a Committee consisting of four persons was ordered by the House to consider of a fit place as they styled it to Execute the King Okey being appointed one of the number perswaded them to have the Scaffold erected before the Banquetting house at White-Hall alledging it was not onely the most convenient place to bring him safe to the block but probably it would strike the more terrour into His Majesty to see himself bronght upon the Stage to suffer before his own Palace-door and so near that place his Father had built and He and his Children formerly enjoyed so much felicity In the mean time to compleat this last tragick act of murdering his Prince that he might mortifie him by degrees he caused the King to be laid in a room at White-Hall the Sunday night after the day of his Sentence so near the place apointed for the separation of his soul from his Body that he might hear every stroke the Workmen gave upon the Scaffold where they wraght all night thinking by that Stratagem to have daunted his patient and unconquered Soul which neither the hellish shapes of his disguised Executioners nor the Horrour of Death it self were any wayes able to affright Nor can I here let pass in silence what I have heard reported from very credible persons That the night before the Kings Death having removed him from White-Hall to St. Iames's he and Axtel caused a guard of dissolute Souldiers to be placed in his Chamber who with talking clinking of Pots opening and shutting of Doors and taking of Tabacco there a thing very offensive to the Kings nature were ordered to keep him waking that so by distempering and amazing Him for want of sleep they might not onely disturb his present meditations but so dis-compose his spirits as he might not the next day be able by any premeditated speech to vindicate the innocency of his actions to the People O! barbarous and unheard-of Cruelty never hitherto parallel'd by any President in the world But God at length delivered him up into the hands of his Majesty to suffer condign punishment for being guilty of the Murther of His Father and to be made an Example to deter posterity from doing the like Which Divine vengeance though he had long escaped yet he in the end found that God does usually recompence the slowness of his coming with the severity of his wrath according to that of the Poet To pece are sinit siquidem divina potestas Temporis ad spatium parcit quandoque nocenti Sed gravius tandem tormentum Rector Olympi Injungit parcitque malis delict a nocentum Though God permits thy crimes long time to be Unpunish'd and the ' nocent oft go free 'T is but deferr'd thy torments to augment For murdering the just and innocent And such was lately the end of this bold and bloody Regecide for being together with his complices Barkstead and Corbet brought to the Kings Bench Bar upon the first day of Easter Term last they were all by a Legal sentense condemned to be hanged drawn and quartered at Tyburn the Satterday following which was according-Executed upon Bark stead and Corbet but by reason of Okeys penitent acknowledgement of his crimes and hearty prayers for his Majesty his body was by the Kings clemency ordered to be delivered to his wife and was buried in the Tower of London Miles Corbet TO wright his life or draw his picture in its proper colonus were to attempt impossibilities since neither his actions or his face can be paralled by any but the Devil for he is his own Son and so like his father that a Major in Ireland meeting him upon the road and by his looks suspecting him to be rather a Pursevant of Hell then one of the Parliaments Judges forced him to alight from his Horse set down upon the ground pull off his bootes and stockings and at last to shew him his bare feet which being done he in a very merry complement told him he might now pass for a man but before he had searched whither or not he had Cloven feet he could not beleive him any other then the Devil This is he who was Inquisitor General to the close Committee of Examinations An indigent person at the beginning of the Long Parliament being indebted for himself and his Mother above three thousand pound more then he was worth The Prologue to the Hangman that looks more like a Hangman then the Hangman himself and may like Don Quixote not undeservedly be stiled the Knight of the ill favoured face His disposition also holds good intelligence with his looks you cannot say of him as Suetonius of Galba ingenium Galae male habitat for they sute so well the one with the ther that in my life I never met with a better decorum Int us Nero foris Cato tet sambiguus monstrum est A cruel Nero within a grave Cate without alwayes distrustful and a Monster Astutam vapido servat sub pectore vulpem His inside is lined with Fox furt his outside with Sheeps-wool One who had deeply engaged himself to live and dye with his Patron Oliver for which reason he was appointed to make a scrutiny into the lives and actions of all such persons as he conceived dis-affected to the Cromwellian party A strict examiner of every mans carriage but his own So active and vigorous in the prosecution of his malice that when he could not suborne witnesses to take away the life of
before his death to roar so loud and make such doleful clamors that his Council being informed that many persons as they passed by his chamber window took much notice of his crys thought fit to have him removed from the place where he then lay to one more private where with extremity of anguish and terror of Conscieence having his soul at the parting from his body accompanied with such a hellish tempest as was by all men judged to be prodigious he finished his miserable life for he dyed mad and dispairing as the Author of the fourth part of the History of Independency affirms Out of whom give me leave to insert this remarkable passage viz. That it was believed and not without some good cause that Cromwel the same morning he defeated the Kings Army at Worcester fight had conference personally with the Devil with whom he made a Contract that to have his will then and in all things else for seven years after from that time being the third of September 1651. he should at the expiration of the said years have him at his command to do at his pleasure both with his soul and body Now if any one will please to reckon from the third of September 1651. till the third of September 1658. he will finde it to a day just seven years and no more Richard Protector At which time he dyed declaring his eldest Son Richard his Successor his Son Henry Lord Lieutenant of Ireland and leaving his Daughter Fleetwood married to the Commander in chief of the Army under himself This was the end of our English Nero A person of an unlimitted ambition and restless spirit of whom I have heard it credibly reported by such as attended upon him in his bed-chamber that after he had embrewed his hands in the blood of his Soveraign he was observed to sleep so little that he scarce took any repose but oft in the night time would arise out of his bed take a pistol into his hand and call to his guard to watch his door and have a care of sleeping Nor was his guilty conscience less terrified in the day time then in the night as appears by the testimony of Sir Theophilus Iones who waiting upon him one morning in his Chamber the wind on a sudden blowing up the hangings before the door possessed him with such a Panick fear that he cryed out Traytors Traytors and drawing out his sword could not be perswaded to disperser his fears or put up his weapon till the wind playing the same game again convinced him of his error The like story I find written by Polidore Virgil of Richard the third who having caused his two Nephews to be secretly murthered he could never after whilest he lived enjoy any quiet in his mind but would be still starting and clapping his hand upon his dagger Thus do to mented Consciences continually carry a Hell about them as Lucan saith the wicked man doth Nocte dieq suum gestare in pectore testem Hunc omnes gladii quos aut Pharsalia vidit Aut ultrix visura dies stringente Senatu Illa nocte premiunt hunc infera monstra flagellant Englished thus The murtherer nor night nor day can rest But bears about a witness in his brest He fancies all he sees are Lictors sent To bring him to deserved punishment Furies raign in his soul And Pictorius in his Epigram upon the same subject saith Illud habet damni vitium inter coetera quod mens Palpitat assiduo flagitiosa mecu Semper enim si non deprehendatur in ipso Sese deprendi posse put at scelere Deque suo quoties alterius do crimine sermo est Cogitat credit se magis esse reum Inque dies timor hic crescit The wicked man this Fate attends that he Is never from pursuing torments free He dreams he 's taken though he waking find Himself deceiv'd fear still torments his mind If any talk of others crimes arise His guilty Conscience in his face streight flyes Each day begets new tortures But 't is time to leave him off and return to his Children who have also drank deep of the bitter Cup of Affliction for their Fathers perjuries according to that of the Poet In prolem dilatarunt perjuria patris The Child often suffers for his Parents crimes Richard Protector For although before his death Oliver strived to entail his tyrannical power as well in England as Ireland upon his Son Richard and Harry yet God soon cast them both out by stirring up their Brother in Law Fleetwood and their near kinsman Disborough to effect it So as this Pageant of Honour continued few Moneths in his Protectorship before he was reduced to such extremity being indebted in 290000 l. for his Fathers Funeral that at the sitting of the Rump Parliament he who lately was stiled the Nations Protector is now necessitated to let his Highness stoop so low as to beg their protection to preserve himself from rotting in a Prison Thus vanished this magni nominis umbra the shadow and Puppet-play of a Protector Henry Cromwel Nor did it fare better with his Brother Harry who having the Government and strength of Ireland in his power and a considerable Army ready to hazard their lives in his service might in all probability have resetled his Brother again or at least have made himself great in the Kings favour had he adhered to his interest but God struck such a terrour into his Soul as he had not courage enough left to be an Instrument of good either to his Countrey or Pâ—ince bâ—t this pittiful cowardly Imp tamely surrendred up all his power into the Râ—mps hands whereupon he was ordered to return speedily into England to attend the pleasure of the House where after a tedious waiting upon them at the Commons Bar at length he was for his good service stroaked on the head called a good Boy and dismissed for which kindness he bussed his hand made a leg and Exit The Lady Claypool Next for Cromwels Daughters the strange end of his Darling Child Mrs. Claypool is very remarkable For finding her Father violently bent in prosecuting the Death of that Learned and Pious Divine Dr. Hewitt her Conscience was so extreamly troubled at his cruelty that she both night and day sollicited him by prayers and supplications to spare the life of that innocent person But he who never before denied any thing she requested of him is now grown inexorable and like the Deaf Adder stops his Ears against the charmings of this sweet Charmer at which unheard of inhumanity she took such excessive grief that she suddenly fell sick the increase of her sickness making her rave in a most lamentable manner calling out against her Father for Hewitts blood and then telling him that God now laid his heavy punishments upon her for his hainous crimes she desired him to repent and pray for her till at length these violent extravagant passions working upon
should appear before him within a fortnight after which indeed proved a prophetick jest for the third of September following Oliver dyed I shall say little of Love Mr. Christopher Love or Marshall those two firebrands of Rebellion But this That as Love was by his own Confession the first Scholar ever heard of in Oxford that publickly refused to subscribe to the Canons of the Church for which he was expelled the Congregation house as also the first Promoter of the Scotch War against the King so he proved afterwards the first Presbyterian Clergy-man that suffered Death in defence of the King the Covenant and the Presbyterian cause NOR was the end of Marshall that Turn-coat Presbyter less observable Stephen Marshall How active an Instrument was he for the Army How invective a Rebel against his Prince But he who had so long cursed Meroz and like Shimei reviled his Soveraign had at length Gods curse brought upon his own head for falling into a desperate sickness he dyed mad and raving Rich. Pym. THE next in order is Richard Pym originally a Shoo-maker afterwards an Inn-keeper living at the Bull within Bishop gate a person so egregiously malitious that he could not forbear to vent his passionate treason publickly amongst such guests as were dining with him at an Ordinary kept in his house saying that he hoped he should live to see the day when he should wash his hands in King Charles's blood which words being taken notice of by one Mr. Grigory an Attorney who was present were by him related to some Members of the Long Parliament who thereupon caused the said Pym to be committed a Prisoner to New-gate But so prevalent at that time was Cromwels power in the house that being a Favourite of his he speedily obtained his releasement without being ever further questioned about it But God would not so release him from punishment For in a short while after he visited his house with a violent Pestilence which suddenly swept away his Wife two Children and such Servants as remained in it who all dyed of the Plague Hereupon the house being shut up whether the loss of his Trade or the Judgement of God upon him for his sins were the occasion of his future destruction I cannot tell but this I am sure that he who before the uttering of those words against His Majesty was possessed of a clear estate in Land estimated at above 300 l. per annam as also a great Trade continually driving within his house could no longer notwithstanding all his care and industry in the management of his affairs preserve his estate or himself from consuming and mouldering away to nothing insomuch as within five year after he became so poor and indebted that he was forced to flye from his house and sell all his goods and at last to betake himself to a Prison from whence though he was afterwards released yet he perished miserably The next knot of Traytors of whose Arraignment and Condemnation I shall onely give you a brief account were Harrison and Carew FIrst Harrison and Carew against whom it was proved that they did often meet and consult together with others how to put the King to Death that they sate at the time of the Sentence and signed the Warrant for the Kings Execution and were found guilty of compassing and imagining his Death for which they were Condemned to be hang'd drawn and quartred which accordingly was done upon Harrison between 9 and 10 of the clock in the morning Octob. 13th 1660. and the like upon the Monday following to Carew at Chairing-Cross with their faces looking upon the Banquetting-house at White-Hall the fatal place pitched upon by those infernal Regicides for the solemn murther of our late Soveraign Charles the first of glorious memory THE next in order was Mr. Iohn Cook the Sollicitor John Cook Hugh Peters that Jesuitical Chaplain to the trayterous High Court it was proved against Cook that he examined Witnesses against the King drew up his Charge exhibited it in the name of the Commons of England that the Charge was of High Treason that he complained of delayes prayed the Charge might be taken pro confesso and at last that it was not so much he as innocent blood that demanded Justice c. Hugh Peurs THen Peter was set at the Bar against whom proof was made that he did at five several places viz. it Windsâ—r at Ware in Coleman-street in the Painted Chan ber and at Bradsraws house consult about the Kings Death that he compared the King to Barrabas and preached to binde their Kings in Chains c. That he called the Day of His Majesties Tryal a glorious Day resembling the judging of the World by the Saints That he prayed for it in the Painted Chamber preached for it at White-Hall St. Iames's St. Sepulchers and other places Of all which the Jury finding him guilty together with Cook of the former Charge they were both the 16th of October Executed at Chairing-Cross THE next brought to Tryal were Scot Clement Scot Clement Scroop Jones Scroop and Iones against Tho. Scot it was proved that he did sit and consult about the Kings Death that he agreed to the Sentence and signed the Warrant whereby the King was murthered that since he hath owned the Kings Death by glorifying in it defending it and saying he would have it engraven on his Tomb-stone that all the world might know it which being aggravations of his crime he was sound guilty by the Jury and Executed the 17th of October following Hic exitus hic vitae finis This was the deserved end of that Great demolisher of old Cathedrals and painful deflowerer of young Maiden-heads Clement AFter him Gregory Clement confessing himself guilty was Sentenced and Executed at the same place with the former and on the same day Scroop Jones THen Scroop was tryed upon the like Indictment for compassing the Kings death against whom it was proved that he did not onely sit in the Court Sentence the King and sign the bloody Warrant but after the coming in of His Majesty that now is justified the committing of that detestable murther for which the Jury finding him guilty As also Mr. Iohn Iones of the like crimes the Court gave Sentence of death against them as the former to suffer as Traytors and accordingly on Wednesday the 17th of October about nine of the clock in the morning Thomas Scot and Gregory Clement were brought on several Hurdles to the Gibbet erected near Chairing-Cross and were there hanged bowelled and quartred and about an hour after Adrian Scroop and Iohn Iones together in one hurdle were carried to the same place and suffered the same pains of Death Axtel THese being thus dispatched and having received the reward of their Treason Daniel Axtel and Francis Hacker were brought before the Court and tryed against Axtel it was proved that when His Majesty was brought to be tryed
did those two Knights of the Post Pitts and Bernard against Sr. Iohn Gell and Colonel Andrews to take away their lives by a High Court of Injustice when he could no longer squeeze any profit out of their bodies Witness his private transporting of many hundred of poor Caveliers beyond the Seas whom this States spirit barbarously sold to be made Gally-slaves to Turkes and Pagans which miser able servitude they must inevitably endure till Death more merciful than this Monster puts a period to their miseries I could instance above two hundred Gentlemen by him clapt in the Tower without any accusation or accusor made known where some of them were detained many years without any legal proceedings or charge against them he and his Master Oliver who continually furnished him with blanck Warrants for that purpose sharing between themselves in the mean time their Estates Offices and Revenues whilst these were left to starve rot and dye in nasty rooms purposely provided to destroy them without any relief or maintenance whatsoever For not one of their Friends dare lend or send them money or any of their Kindred come near them for fear of being committed Prisoners or at least questioned for malignants So as his Prison was become a private Slaughter-house and Olivers Court the publick Shambles of injustice It was the Custom of King Charles the first and his Predecessors to grant all owance to Prisoners in the Tower during their confinements according to their several degrees viz. 51. weekly for an Esquire c. and so proportionably for every person suitable to his quality But so far was this Canibal from giving or allowing any thing towards their subsistance that he converted those Fees to his own use and caused them to be shut up close Prisoners in unwholsome Chambers denying them the liberty of the Tower and bâ—nefit of the fresh air the Camelious dyet for their healths or resort of Friends for their accomodations The Fable of the Promethean vulture was but an Embleme of this Monster for so long as his power lasted he continually knaw'd upon the hearts of such persons as were under his custody his Office resembling that of the Sheep-heards Dog to worry Sheep first and afterwards drive them into his pinfolds He was Cromwels Coy-duck whilst he lived Offitiosa aliu exiti sa suis ever imployed and very officious to bring store of game into his Masters nets one that had learned to give poyson into a golden cup and knew well how to deceive even with Scripture plarases like her in Claudian * Claudian de voluptate Stiliconis lib. 2. Blanda quidem vultu sed quae non tetriox ulla Interius fucatagenas amict a doloru Illecibris An outward Saint an inward Devil A painted face but full of evil One who coveted to be rich and great in power that his greatness might equal his malice like him in the Poet Qui tantum ut noceat cupit esse potens Who rays'd himself out of the dirt That he might have more power to hurt Base men when they climb to any height prove above all others most proud and ambitious as appeared by this man who being beggarly born and of contemptible Parents became the most cruel and fiercest blood-hound of all Olivers pack Asperius nihilest humili cum surgit in altum None are more cruel than mean men rays'd high Or Beggars mounted on a Palfery For set but any of these proud Raskals on Horse-back and they will never rest till like their Comerade Pride aux they have made good the Proverb and ride Post to the Devil When Traytors are climbing up Fortunes Wheel Derrick commonly watches under-neth it to catch them toll untur in altum Ut lapsu graviore ruant This proved at last his reward for his horrid villanies treasons and murdering his Soveraign A Legacy long since given and bequeathed to him by his fellow-sufferers and Brethren in iniquity Harrison Scot Axtel and Hugh Peters who made the Hang-man Executor to their last Wills and Testaments To whose mercy I leave him and Corbet concluding with this Epitaph HEre lyes poor Iohn who was not beat to death As Stock-fish are but onely lost his breath Whilst he aspir'd himself on high to rayse He gain'd a wreath of Hemp instead of Bayes The Fate of Traytors may all perish so That seek their King and Kingdoms over-throw Dun was his Doctor who thought fit to bind A Cord about his neck to keep the wind From fuming up his head But O! sad note The Rope begot a squinzy in his throat Which choakt him up although some busie tongues Report it was the obstruction of his lungs That caus'd his sudden Death Let all who are His Friends by his example have a care How they come under this rude Doctors pawes Who onely practices the Tyburn Lawes In making falling-bands or knitting-knots That cure diseases beyond the Galli-pots A Rogue so known in Hell each Sessions thence They send Fiends to him for intelligence What guests are coming to the Stiâ—ian Court Whether the greater or the meaner sort Traytors or Thieves to whom he answer makes When Phoebe once her waining horns forsakes And Easter Term begins I 'le send you * Corbet one Whose looks shall ' ffright grim Pluto from his throne And scare the lesser Devils thence when there They see one Blackeâ— than themselves appear But when Dun named Corbet they reply'd He 's Pluto's Kinsman by he mothers side We know him well bid him make haste for hee Is welcome to our black Fraternitie William Munsun Henry Mildmay and Rob. Wallup As for that female Town-top and great devourer of of buttered Peason William late Lord Munson formerly a Page but now a close Prisoner in the Fleet Harry once Sr. Henry Mildmay and Robert Wallup who did all actually sit as Judges upon the Tryal of their lawful Soveraign King Charles the first by reason it appeared that they were absent from the pretended Hight Court of Justice at such time as Sentence passed to take away the Kings life His Masesty was gâ—atiously pleased to refer the manner of their punishments to His High Court of Parliament who soon after upon a Serious debate in both Houses passed an Act too merciful for such ingrateful Traytors though in some sort suitable to the quality of their Crimes viz. That their Estates should be Confiscated and their persons drawn upon Sledges from the Tower to Tyburn with Ropes about their Necks and to be degraded of their Honours and Titles c. which was accordingly Executed upon the 27th of Ianuary following An. 1661. it being the same day that the King was Condemned to death many thousands of people being Spectators of their infamy who not onely at the Gallows but as they passed in the streets bitterly cursed and reviled them insomuch that Wallup being of that shameful punishment more sensible than the other of the horrid sin he had committed as well as of the eternal
as the just reward of their former wickedness God now rendring to them what before they had so well deserved by suffering them willingly and wickedly to be the Authors and Instruments of each others punishment The Lord Brooks The next Member of the long Parliament that I shall set down in this list of Disloyal Subjects is the Lord Brooks a man while he lived beyond the Seas much debauched and very loose in his life and conversation as by several letters sent from thence to his Uncle Sir Fulk Grevil afterwards Lord Brooks may appear And how he passed from one extreme to another from a very dissolute youth to a most resolute Saint I know not onely these things were observed to be remarkable in him that he was a very obstinate and violent opposer of the King who was Pater Patriae and a very gracious Prince ro him an extreme hater and persecutor of the Reverend Bishops and all the Grave and Learned Clergy a great demolisher of Cathedrals and so great an enemy to that excellent Prayer in our Letany That it would please God to deliver us from sudden death that he moved the House to abolish the whole Liturgy alledging every man ought to be at all times so prepared for death as they need not at any time pray against sudden death But here behold and adore the judgement of the just God how that as Goliahs head was cut off with his own sword so judicium suum super caput suum this Lords judgement and practice fell upon his own head for in his prosecution of his hate against his King as a just reward for his Rebellion his Lordship being in Litchfield on St. Chad's day the Founder of that Church whilest at a little window he viewed the Colledge or Close as they term it to the Church of S. Chad ro batter them down with his Canons being harnessed cap-a-pe from top to toe as he lifted up his helmet to see the same more clearly God directed the hand of a dumb youth that was a Prebends Son with a shot from a fowling peice to hit him just in the eye insomuch as he fell down suddenly dead without speaking one word no not so much as Lord have mercy upon him Mr. John Pym. The next I shall bring upon the stage is Mr. Iohn Pym a man preferred to a great Office of trust and of much gain under the King But so soon as he became a Member of the Long Parliament he proved so active in traducing the King that he was the principal of those five against whom his Majestie demanded justice a man so bitter and invective in his malice towards the Earl of Strafford that knowing how much he was beloved of the King and that whatsoever evil could be conceived against him would reflect upon His Majestie he first with invective Orations poysoned the greater part of the House and the seditious vulgar with a conceit against the good King his Master then never left profecuting the Earl till he had brought his head to the block And now finding how Scelera sceleratioribus tuenda that great crimes committed cannot be safe but by attempting greater he secretly complies with the Scots to raise an Army to assist him and the rest of his seditious Compeers against his Majestie But the King having full intelligence both of his own and his Partners practices against him laboured to bring them to a legal tryal whereupon to save themselves they take Sanctuary in the City and in short space so corrupted the Citizens that they first drew them and afterwards the whole Kingdom to engage themselves in a desperate Civil War against their lawful Soveraign But though his Majesties hand was then too weak to fetch him out of his guarded palace to condign punishment yet the hand of the Almighty who is the Lord of Hosts as he raised up a great Army though composed of little Creatures Rats and Mice who devoured Pepiel the second King of Poland Anno 830. for treacherously poysoning of his Uncles and those worms that destroyed Herod the King so he caused infinite swarms of Lice to seize upon this strong Rebel who eat him up alive that he might do no further mischief against his Anointed Hamden The like judgement fell upon Colonel Hamden who for his disloyalty to his King was shot to death upon the same plot of ground where he first mustered his Souldiers against the King Alderman Hoyle As also upon Thomas Hoil late Major of York and a Member of the long Parliament a bitter enemy against his Prince and one who had a great hand in his death for which Cromwel caused him to be rewarded with Sir Peter Osborns place viz. Treasurers Remembrancer in the Exchequer valued at 1300 l. per annum who on that day twelve moneths that the King lost his life made a Bonfire for joy he was beheaded but on the same day twelve moneths after miserably hanged himself Oliver Cromwel But I must not here forget the Arch-Machiavilian Rebel and prodigious Monster of men Oliver Cromwel who adding strength to the wings of his ambition soared an Eagles height and striving by a grasp of the Scepter to enoble his Name and Family to posterity resolved to put on the purple Robes of Majestie though deep-dy'd in the blood of his Soveraign to whom he had sworn allegiance and stood engaged by many solemn oathes and horrid execrations upon himself and his Family to preserve and re-settle in his Throne Nevertheless contrary to all his former protestations and promises he treacherously caused the King to be kept close Prisoner in Carisbrook Castle where he plotted with Rolf to have him secretly made away though afterwards he was publiquely murthered And that he might palliate the breach of his Faith Vows and Allegiance to his Soveraign he by a printed Declaration makes God the Author of his wickedness affirming he could not resist the motions of the Spirit which would not suffer him to keep his word with the King or let his Conscience rest quiet till he had taken away hife life Thus Sua cuique Deus fit dira libido This Hob-goblin serves all turns and Oliver was so perfect a Juggler that he had got the right knack of Pulpit canting so as it is was easie for him under this mask of Religion that old stalking-horse of Rebellion by deceiving the ignorant sort of people up to exalt himself up to the usurped Throne of his Martyred Prince Into which he was no sooner entered but this Ioshua of the Saints was prayed for in every Conventicle and a day of general Thanksgiving for his enstallment appointed to God I think for his patience in not striking this Atheistical Tyrant with Thunder and Lightning for making him a stale to his premeditated villanies But God permitted not this Son of Belial to raign long in his cruelties but speedily cut him off by a miserable and tormenting sickness which caused him two days