He could not, however, be ignorant that, even among the former companions of his fortunes, the men who had fought and bled by his side, there were several who, much as they revered the general, looked on the protector with the most cordial abhorrence.[a] They were stubborn, unbending republicans, partly from political, partly from religious, principle.  To them he affected to unbosom himself without reserve.  He was still, he protested, the same humble individual whom they had formerly known him.  Had he consulted his own feelings, “he would rather have taken the staff of a shepherd” than the dignity of protector.  Necessity had imposed the office upon him; he had sacrificed his own happiness to preserve his countrymen from anarchy and ruin; and, as he now bore the burden with reluctance, he would lay it down with joy, the moment he could do so with safety to

[Sidenote a:  A.D. 1654.]

the nation.  But this language made few proselytes.  They had too often already been the dupes of his hypocrisy, the victims of their own credulity; they scrupled not, both in public companies, and from the pulpit, to pronounce him “a dissembling perjured villain;” and they openly threatened him with “a worse fate than had befallen the last tyrant.”  If it was necessary to silence these declaimers, it was also dangerous to treat them with severity.  He proceeded with caution, and modified his displeasure by circumstances.  Some he removed from their commissions in the army and their ministry in the church; others he did not permit to go at large, till they had given security for their subsequent behaviour; and those who proved less tractable, or appeared more dangerous, he incarcerated in the Tower.  Among the last were Harrison, formerly his fellow-labourer in the dissolution of the long parliament, now his most implacable enemy; and Feakes and Powell, the Anabaptist preachers, who had braved his resentment during the last parliament.[a] Symson, their colleague, shared their imprisonment, but procured his liberty[b] by submission.[1]

To the royalists, as he feared them less, he showed less forbearance.  Charles, who still resided in Paris, maintained a constant correspondence with the friends of his family in England, for the twofold purpose of preserving a party ready to take advantage of any revolution in his favour, and of deriving from their loyalty advances of money for his own support and that of his followers.  Among the agents whom he employed, were men who betrayed his secrets, or pretended

[Footnote 1:  Thurloe, i. 641, 642; ii. 67, 68.  Whitelock, 580, 582, 596.  Ludlow, ii. 47.]

[Sidenote a:  A.D. 1654.  Feb. 30.] [Sidenote b:  A.D. 1654.  July 26.]