"
"Edward Armitage, I will now answer for myself and thousands more. You
are too young a man to have known the cause of the insurrection, or,
rather, opposition, to the unfortunate King Charles. He attempted to
make himself absolute, and to wrest the liberties from the people of
England: that his warmest adherents will admit. When I joined the
party which opposed him, I little thought that matters would have been
carried so far as they have been; I always considered it lawful to
take up arms in defense of our liberties, but at the same time I
equally felt that the person of the king was sacred."
"I have heard so, sir."
"Yes, and in truth; for never did any people strive more zealously to
prevent the murder of the king--for murder it was--than my relative
Ashley Cooper and myself--so much so, indeed, as to have incurred not
only the suspicion but the ill-will of Cromwell, who, I fear, is now
making rapid advances toward that absolute authority for which the
king has suffered, and which he would now vest in his own person. I
considered that our cause was just; and, had the power been left in
the hands of those who would have exercised it with discretion and
moderation, the king would even now have been on the throne, and the
liberties of his subjects sacred; but it is easier to put a vast and
powerful engine into motion than to stop it, and such has been the
case in this unfortunate civil war.
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