Adrian Scroop and Mr. Iohn Jones together in one hurdle were carried to the same place and suffered the same pains of death being afterwards returned to Newgate and thence their quarters placed on several of the City Gates and their heads deservedly disposed on the top of London Bridge and other places These being thus dispatched having received the reward of their Treason Mr. Daniel Axtel and Master Francis Hacker were brought before the Court to be tried Against the first of whom viz. Axtell was in proof that is the imagining and compassing the death of the King that he bid his Souldiers cry out Justice Justice and Execution Execution and beat them till they did it That he bid shoot the Lady that spoke and call'd Cromwel Traytor saying not a quarter of the people of England consented to their wicked Charge that he said to Col. Huncks upon his refusal to sign the warrant for executing the King I am ashamed of you the Ship is now coming into Harbour and will you strike sayle before we come to Anchor that he laughed at the Transactions as applauding them while others sighed that after the King was murthered he kept Guards upon the dead body and knew who cut off the Kings head having sent one Elisha Axtell for the Executioner upon which proof the Jury found him guilty of the said Treason whereof he stood indicted 10. Francis Hacker was arraigned and by diverse witnesses it was sworn against him that he was Commander of the Halbeteers who kept the King prisoner and would not suffer any accesse to be unto him that he guarded him to their mock-Court and after kept him sure till he was murthered that he was one of the persons to whom the Warrant for execution was directed and that he signed it that he brought the King to the fatal block and was upon the scaffold being a principal agent about the Kings death for which horrid Treason the Jury found him guilty after which the Court sentenced both him and Axtell to suffer death as Traytors according to which judgement they were on Friday the 19. of October about 9. of the clock in the morning drawn upon one hurdle from Newgate to the common place of execution generally called Tyburn and there were hanged Mr. Axtel was bowelled and quartered and so returned back and disposed as the former but the body of Mr. Hacker by his Majesties great grace and favour and at the humble suit and intercession of his friends was given to them entire and by them afterwards buried The last of this crew that was for present execution was Will. Hulet against whom was proved that he was one of those which came with a Frock on his body and a Vizor on his face to perpetrate the horrid murther on the Person of the King and that being so disguised upon the Scaffold he fell down before the King and asked him forgivenesse being known by his voice that himself said He was the man that beheaded K. Charles for that he had one 100 l. and preferment That Hewson said of him that he did the Kings business upon the Scaffold That he either did cut it off or took it up and said Behold the head of a Traytor That being questioned about the said words he said whosoever said it matters not I say now it was the head of a Traytor with many other things to the like purpose for which most abhorred Treason the Jury found him guilty and he was condemned to be hang'd drawn and quarter'd at Tyburn This was the deserved Catastrophe that was set to these men who without any reason nay contrary to reason Lawes both Divine and Humane yea even in defiance of Heaven dipped their hands in the sacred blood of their lawful Soveraign according to that of the Wiseman The eye that mocketh his Father Rex Pater Patriae and despiseth his Mother Ecclesia est Mater the Ravens of the Valley shall pick it out which which we see befallen them their heads in several places being become a spectacle both to Angels and Men and a prey to the Birds of the Aire In the last place it is provided by the said Act of Oblivion that if VVilliam Lenthal VVill. Burton Oliver St. Iohn Iohn Ireton Alderman Col. Iohn Disborrow Col. VVill. Sydenham Iohn Blackwel of Moreclack Christ Pack Alderman Richard Keeble Charles Fleetwood John Pyne Rich. Dean Major Richard Creed Philip Nye Clerk Iohn Goodwin Clerk Sir Gilbert Pickering Col. Thom. Lister and Col. Raph Cobbet shall after the 1. of September 1660. accept or exercise any Office Ecclesiastical Civil or Military or any other publick imployment within the Kingdome of England Dominion of VVales or Town of Barwick upon Tweed that then such person or persons as do so accept or execute as aforesaid shall to all intents and purposes in Law stand as if he or they had been totally excepted by name in the Act. The like penalty is imposed on all such who did give sentence of Death upon any person or persons in any of the late illegal or Tyrannical high Courts of Justice or signed the Warrant for execution of any person there condemned Thus by the blessing of God I have waded through the many intricate Meanders and Revolutions untill at last I have as it were brought you by the hand to see that desperate Faction of Indepencency as one may say laid into its Grave all the heads thereof being so annihilated by the Iustice of the known Law of the Land that I hope its memory shall be raked up in such an Eternal forgetfulnesse that posterity seeing no foot-steps thereof shall conceive it to be a bare name a mere notion or aliquid non ens of which in nature there can be no subsistance An Appendix HOw far the Treasons of faction have reached and how high they durst soare is to be seen before I shall onely now in short give a hint how highly the Law of England resents such impious acts I say then the wisdome and foresight of the Laws of this Land in all cases of Treason maketh this judgement that the Subject that riseth or rebelleth in forcible to over-rule the royal will and power of the King intendeth to deprive the King both of Crown and Life and this is no mystery or quidity of the Common Law but an infallible conclusion drawn out of reason and experience for the Crown is not a ceremony or Garland but as Imperial consisteth of preheminence and power This made former Traytors in all their quarrels against their Princes not to strike down-right because God unto Lawful Kings did ever impart such beams of his own glory as Rebels never durst look straight upon them but ever turned their pretences against some about them this caused the Judges sometime to deliver their opinions for matter in Law upon two points The first that in case where a subject attempteth to put himself into such strength as the King shall not be able to resist him
morning that he defeated the Kings Army at Worcester Fight had conference personally with the Divell 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 1558. Cromwels death he shall find it to a Day just seven years and no more at the end whereof he dyed but with such extremity of tempestuous weather that was by all men judged to be prodigious neither indeed was his end more miserable for he dyed mad and despairing than he hath left his name infamous this was the end of our English Nero and thus having laid the best foundations his short and troublesome Reign would give leave to have continued his posterity in the same unlimited Dominion at his death si ullafides viris qui castra sequuntur declaring his eldest Son Richard his successour in his Usurpation Leaving his Son Henry Lord Lieutenant of Ireland and his Daughter Fleetwood married to the Commander in chief of the Army under himself and the only Man suspected for a Competitour in the Protectorship for Lambert had been laid aside long before as a person of too dangerous and aspiring principles to be trusted Richard Cromwell presently ascends the Throne Richard Cromwell Protector being but a private Gentleman of Hampshire invited thereunto and incouraged by Flee wood Deshorow Sydenham the two Jones Thurloe and others the relations and confidents of his Father His first work is to take care for his Fathers Funerall his corps being shortly after interred among the Kings and Queens at Westminster at a farr * 29000 l. greater charge than had been used upon like occasions in the richest times death giving him that honour which he aspired to but durst not embrace in his life time which solemity ast by the contrivance of the now Courtiers congratulations are sent prepared at Whitehall from most of the Counties Cities câ—ief Townes of England And from the Armies of England Scotland Ireland with engagements to live and dye with him Addresses from the Independent Churches by Mr. Goodwine and Nye their Metropoâ—itans and was indeed worshipped by many as the rising Sun in our Horizon This Introduction being made for transferring the Government of these Nations from the Royal family of the Stewarts to that upstart of the Cromwells Diâ—ks Parliament now modelled it was thought fit that a generall Convention after the manner of a Parliament wisely chosen by influences from Whitehall should be called to meet the twenty seventh of January and upon pretence of restoring the people to their antient way of Elections but reall that the Court might command the more votes the Burroughs also had writs sent to them and the Elections were all made in the antient way only thirty members were called by writs from Scotland and as many from Ireland according to the late combination of the three Nations into one Common-wealth This new kind of Parliament being met at the time and place appointed God who had so well ordered the Elections notwithstanding the practices of Men that their English Spirit quickly appeared against Impositions both from Court and Army Act of Recognition which being discerned by the Protector and his Grandees a Recognition is sent to them to be drawn into a bill the debate whereof taking up a whole fourtnights time and they still remaining in a great streight till by the expedient of an honest Gentleman they were extricated thence by passing these votes on Munday the 14th of February 1658. without any division or negative Resolved that it be part of this Bill to Recognize and declare his Highnesse Richard Lord Protector and chiefe Magistrate of the Common-wealth of England Scotland and Ireland and the Dominions and Territories thereunto belonging Resolved that before this Bill be committed the House do declare such additionall clauses to be part of this Bill as may bound the power of the chief Magistrate and fully secure the Rights and Priviledges of Parliament and the Liberties and Rights of the People and that neither this nor any other previous vote that is or shall be passed in order to this Bill shall be of force or binding to the People till the whole Bill be passed This done Committee of inspection a Committee of In spections is appointed to take a view of the accounts and revenue of the Common-wealth twelve Members versed in matters of account were selected and fully impowered for that work in order to the lessening the charge of the Common-wealth On Saturday the 19th of February they re-assumed the debate upon the Act of Recognition and resolved That it be part of the bill to declare the Parliament to consist of two houses Parl. to consist of two houses after which they fell upon the point of bounding the chiefe Magistrates power and the bounds and powers of the other house the Protectors party standing for the powers given by the Petition and advice and the rest of the house withstood it as of no value being obteined by force by which force also thirteen hundred thousand pounds a year was setled for ever upon the single person and the ruling members of the other house being a hotch potch or medley of Officers of the Army and Protectorian Courtiers contrary to the law of the land The other house debated and to the enslaving of the people By this means nothing being done herein as to the powers the Cromwelians that they might enforce something propose the question of transacting with the persons sitting in the other house as an house of Parliament urging both law and necessity for the same yea threatning force from the Army upon refusall notwithstanding all which a whole fornight the honest party of the House thought of nothing less asserting the undoubted Right of the antient Peers and denying all the rest but seeing nothing could be done till this was over in a very full house they came at last to this well qualified resolve Resolved That this House will transact with the Persons now sitting in the other house as an house of Parliament during this present Parliament And that it is not hereby intended to exclude such Peers as have been faithfull to the Parliament from their priviledge of being duly summoned to be Members of that house Herein may be seen something of the old English gallantry Not owned as Lords for in this vote those in the other House are not owned as Lords but called the Persons now sitting in the other House as an house of Parliament neither would the Commons treat and confer with them in the usuall way as with the house of Peers but found ouâ— a new word to transact
the same night also marching down to Westminster and planting themselves in Kingstreet and in and about the Abbey Church and Yard This unusuall assembly at such an unaccustomed hour caused a generall terrour in the hearts and minds of the Inhabitants who dreaded some greater mischief than they were sensible of but the night being past in the morning the Speaker Mr. W. Lenthall at his usuall time came along Kingstreet and had passage through the ranks of Souldiers The Rump turned out of doors till he came to the new Palace gate where his Coach was stopped and himself compelled to return home as wise as he went whereby the house was interrupted from sitting which was the chief thing that Lambert aimed at yet though he had thus wrought his purpose he durst not withdraw but make good his station against the other faction the greatest part of the day each of the Phanatick leaders for so indeed they were both expecting who should give the first blow of which meekness the then council of State taking notice required both to draw off to their quarters which motion was willingly accepted on all hands and so both sides marched away Thus have we seen that rump of pretended authority Observe which in May was with much solliciting many intreaties and not a few specious pretences courted to come into play now again in October with as great scorn and malice laid a side and trampled on Nec lex est justior ulla quam necis artifices arte perire sua It hath been a generall Observation that Treason is alwayes the greatest punishment to it self like the Viper it breeds young with her own destruction and as the Poet speaketh of envy sit licet injustus livor so may I say of it though it be unjust to others yet is it very just to destroy them first that would destroy others The Councill of Officers having thus seized the Government into their hands Officers meet played with it for certain dayes till with the old Philosopher in the question about God finding the more they studyed the less they understood and that they were led by an Ignis fatuus which only trained them to the sight but would never bring them to the certenty of a settlement and pondering their own many weaknesses and infirmities with the exigency of affairs they fell into consideration of what was fit to be done In the debate whereof after many frivolous essayes they agreed at length among themselves to nominate some persons to be a Councill of State which device being applauded and a new name devised for them for they will be called forsooth the Committee of safety these following persons were pitch'd upon They erect a Committee of safety their names and characters Viz. Fleetwood whose folly would have exempted but they were affraid he would have cryed Knowing also that the beft play ever hath a fool in it Lambert a seeming Saint but chief Engenier of the modell Desborow a drunken Clown skill'd in Harrassing the land steel once a sneaking petty fogger now Lord Chancellour of Ireland and a Traytor Whitlock a lump of ingratitude and deceit Sir Henry Vane chief secretary to the seven deadly sins Ludlow once a Gentleman but since by himself Levelled into the plebeyan rank Sydenham nothing good in him but his name Upstart Saloway Strickland once a rumper after a Lord of Nolls edition then a convert to the good old cause Berry pedâ—m nequissimus the wickedst villain among 10000. Lawrence once an upstart privy Counceller now scarce a Gentleman Sir James Harrington Per risum multum possis cognescere Wareston a mickle knave geud faw Sir Ireton and Tichborn two of the City Puckfoists who lye leger in the Common Council to discover plots for the getting of money Henry Brandrith fit for mischief else he had not been here Thompson a dull fellow but a soaking Committee-man Hewson the Common-wealths upright setter Sniveling Col. Clarke Factious Col. Lilburn preaching Col. Bennet and Cornelius Holland a most damnable Apostate both to God and his King To these fellowes thus firly accoutred Comâ— safety their power is the Government committed and not only so but they have power to call Delinquents to account to oppose and suppress all insurrections to treat with forreign States and Princes to raise the militia's in the severall Counties To dispose of all places of trust with many other things by which may be seen what an unlimited arbitrary power they assumed to themselves over the lives and estates of all Englishmen And that all England might take notice hereof Armies decla ation they send out a Declaration in print entitled a Declaration of the General Council of the Officers of the Army wherein they say they have lodged the civil and executive part of Government in the Committee of safety whom they have obliged to prepare such a form of Government as may best sute with a Free-State without a single person Kingship or house of Peers with many equivocating though Saint-like expressions to the like effect with which they hoped to delude the World and continnue their usurpation but Sera venit sed certa venit All their hypocriticall shewes cannot cheat God who raiseth up the Spirit of one among themselves to chastise the errours of their pride and vain glorious attempts for no sooner is that Infernall crew of Atheists met intheir Committee but they are alarumed with a letter from General Monck out of Scotland wherein he gives them notice that both himself and some Officers of the Army in Scotland Monck dissatisfied with their proceedings were much dissatisfied in reference to the transactions of affairs in England at the same time receiving intelligence that he had seized severall strong holds secured diverse of his dissenting Officers Seizeth Barwick and possessed himself of Barwick which drove them for a time into a kind of Phanatick stupidity that they knew not which way to move in the management of their affairs but at last willing to preserve themselves they order the forces in the North into a posture and command lambert with more Regiments out of the Southerly parts to joyn with them that so they might appear formidable at least at a distance and put a stay to the violence which they foresaw was approaching to them Lambert marcheth against him for the prevention of which storm Col. Cobbet is sent to General Monck with insinuating relations whom the Generall immediately upon his arrivall commits to custody thereby preserving his Army from the dangerous contrivances that Person brought along with him and depriving of the intelligence he might have carried to England back with him which being done by the power of his Commission as one of the seven he straight new models his Army according to his own mind and then declares his resolution to assert the authority of Parliament against all violence whatsoever Upon newes of this our safe Committeemen knowing the pulse of the
the ancient Government of the City and vacating the Phanatick power in the Country they commend the establishment of the Nation to a full and free Parliament to be called the 25th of Aprill 1660. Issuing out writs to that purpose in the name of the keepers of the Liberty of England by authority of Parliament and setling a Councell of State of most discreet and moderate men to whom the affairs of the three Nations in the intervall and untill the meeting of the Parliament on the aforesaid 25th of Aprill was committed who with much discretion managed their power to the satisfaction of all sober minded men and so saving to the house of Lords their rights notwithstanding the Commons were in this Juncture of time put upon necessity to act without them commending the Souldiery once more to his Excellency upon the sixteenth day of March in the year of our Lord 1659. Lorg P. legally ended a day worthy to be remembred they dissolved themselves and so at last put a legall period to that fatall long-Parliament which could not be dissolved by any but by it self And thus we see Independency laid in the dust and ready to give up the ghost and indeed not long after we shall see fully to expire the Prodromi of whose miserable end might be these and the like The Councel of State in this intervall of power The intervall with very great caution and wariness manage their affairs turning neither to the right hand nor to the left but keeping a direct course as knowing in medio ibunt tutissimi they set out a Proclamation against all disturbers of the peace under what pretence or name soever sparing none that in a time of such hopes durst either move a hand or tongue to work a disturbance taking care also that the order of the last Parliament touching elections should be duly and punctually observed Elections for a new Parl. as considering that the peace or ruine of the Nation would lye in their hands His Excellency the Lord Generall in this interregnum accepts of severall invitations and treatments in the City by several of the worthy companies yet still having an eye to the main he keeps close to his Officers who were not yet fully resolved and often confers with them in a more familiar manner than ordinary whereby he so wrought on them that at last he brought them to declare that they would acquiesce in the resolves of the approaching Parliament and indeed this was a shrewd forerunner of the fall of Independency as I said before whose only hope was builded on the averseness of these men to lawfull power which when they saw frustrated they might well depair yet endeavour once more to endeavour a confusion which being observed by the Councell and that a discontented Spirit possessed some of the old Officers and Grandees according to the power given them to that purpose they send for all suspected persons confining them unless they subscribed an engagement to demean themselves quietly and peaceably under the present Government and acquiesce submissively in the determination of the Parliament next ensuing which reasonable engagement Lambert and some others reâ—using were carefully confined to several prisons by which means the peace was wonderfully preserved but notwitstanding all this care such were the restless endeavours of that divellish faction that whether by the neglect or treachery of his keepers is not yet known Lambert gets out of prison cuningly who being a man of loose principles and desperate fortunes so encouraged the Phanatick party and stirred up their drooping Spirits that they began to threaten great matters and for perfecting their wicked design begin to gather to an head near Edg-hill which they hoped would prove to them an auspicious Omen for the beginning of a Second war but Heaven would no longer wink at such intollerable villanies for the sins of these Amorites were fully ripe for judgment so that they were discovered and quickly nipped in the bud Lambert and his accomplices being so eagerly pursued by Col. R. Ingoldsby that they were suddenly forc'd to scatter and shift for themselves by flight Taken and sent to the Tower neither was that so swift or secure but that Lambert was taken prisoner by the said Col. Ingoldsby and sent prisoner up to London at which time passing by Hide park on the twenty fourth of Ayril he saw all the City Regiments both of horse and foot Trayned Band and Auxiliaries completed armed and trayned and ready to hazard their Lives and Fortunes against all seditious and factious Traitors to their King and Country The news of this first appearance of armed loyalty being spred abroad into the Countreys The first loyal muster did so animate and encourage the old oppressed that casting off their fetters and fears together they begin to appear in their wonted guise and because they were by the Phanaticks traduced as men of blood and full of revenge not to be satisfied but with the utter ruine of their adversaries thereupon to undeceive the vulgar who might possibly have been misled by such lies if not answered did from their several and respective Counties as also in the Cities of London and Westminster declare The Gentry declare that they were far from any thoughts of revenge it belonging to God alone alluding to that text of Scripture Vengeance is mine I will repay saith the Lord but as for Justice they would acquiesce in the judgment of the approaching Parliament This being done The Parliament begins and the whole Parliament at the appointed time beginning first with their duty to God they follow that golden Pythagorean rule 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 giving him hearty thanks for that their freedome of meeting which when they had cordially done they fell in order to their Governour First They fear God then honour the King As the same Pythagoras goes on 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The very Heathen we see by the meer light of Nature could dictate that which our Grand Enthusiasts of Religion would not for these many years by the ignis fatuus of their new lighted notion walk after But the Parliament were better principled for after their devotions regularly paid to God they in the very next place own their duty to their Prince upon the first day of May a happy day to be remembred to posterity voting the Government to be by King Kingly government voted Lords and Commons a constitution so incomparably mixed that it may rather be admired then envied neither were they satisfied to rest there but on the Eighth day of the same May caused his Majesty to be proclaimed King of England King proclaimed Scotland France and Ireland which was performed with so much Solemnity and Joy as I presume England I dare say hardly any Kingdome in the World ever saw or were sensible of the like the shouts and acclamations of the pleased people rending the