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CHAPTER V.

Let us be sacrificers, but not butchers, Caius.

We all stand up against the spirit of Cæsar,

And in the spirit of man there is no blood:
Oh! that we then could come by Casar's spirit,

And not dismember Cæsar! But, alas!

Cæsar must bleed for it. And, gentle friends,

Let's kill him boldly, but not wrathfully.

Let's carve him as a dish fit for the gods,

Not hew him as a carcase fit for hounds.

Julius Cæsar.

THE indignation of the parliament, who after the retreat of the eleven impeached members had more and more come into the strong measures of the army, was fearfully inflamed by the

King's absolute refusal of the Four Acts; so much so, that a bill was passed forbidding all addresses for the future to Charles Stuart, and all renewal of negotiations with him for a settlement, though not till after two or three debates in which the military leaders, and above all the lieutenant-general, took active part. The last, indeed, on one occasion, ended a long and strenuous harangue by raising his voice to its highest pitch with these emphatic words: "Teach not the army-by neglecting your own safety and that of the kingdom, by which theirs too is involved to imagine themselves betrayed, and their interests abandoned to the rage of an irreconcilable enemy whom for your sake they have dared to provoke. Beware," and as he spoke he laid his hand upon his rapier's hilt,"beware lest their despair cause them to seek safety by some other means than by adhering to you, who know not to consult for your own safety."

And now, although the peril from the army's

insubordination had subsided, not a day passed without some riotous commotion indicative of the divided state of public feeling. Continual tumults between the London mob, now become once more loyal to the King, and the detachments of the veterans quartered in the metropolis, were not suppressed without some bloodshed; and in the early spring were followed by a general movement of the royalists throughout the kingdom, which, had it been planned with as much of concert and of wisdom as it was executed with high bravery and spirit, would have caused much perplexity to those in power. As it was, however, so ill-timed and unpremeditated were the risings of the cavaliers, that they were easily subdued in detail, although their numbers if united would have been truly formidable, and although they fought as individual bodies with all the resolution of despair, and in no case were vanquished without loss and difficulty to the independent army. The men of Kent were beaten, after a hard fought and well

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disputed battle at Maidstone, by the lord-general in person; and the royalists of Wales, under the gallant Colonel Poyer, were defeated, and Pembroke into which they had retired taken by Cromwell after a six-weeks' siege.

This latter exploit over, that indefatigable leader hurried northward with all his wonted energy of movement; came on the Scottish army, now united with the northern cavaliers of Langdale, at Preston on the Ribble; and, though with forces vastly inferior, hesitated not to give them battle. Having defeated them so utterly that their army was in truth wholly disorganized and scattered, he pursued them closely into Scotland, where he compelled the citizens of Edinburgh, deeply averse and hostile to his party, to put down the royalists, and to replace the power of the state in Argyle's hands, who had now joined the independent faction with his whole heart and spirit.

While there, the Earl of Leven and Sir David Lesley so totally disclaimed the covenant as to

cannonade the royalist troops from the castle; and to agree with Oliver, at a convention held in my Lady Home's house in the Canongate, that there was a necessity, now fully obvious, for taking the King's life.

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Meanwhile Lord Goring, who had advanced to Blackheath, hoping that by his presence London would be encouraged into action, being checked by Fairfax, shut himself up in Colchester; but after a long and vigorous defence was forced, when all was over, to surrender at discretion; and had the further misery of seeing two of his bravest officers, Sir George Lisle and Sir Charles Lucas, shot by the conquerors as rebels-a rigorous and cruel exercise of power for which the general did not escape much obloquy, although it was alleged in his defence, and probably with truth, that he was instigated to such unwonted harshness solely by the suggestions of the fierce and unrelenting Ireton.

This absolute suppression of the King's friends by land was poorly compensated by the defection

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