time: the refreshing river 



man. But no man shall have any title of Honour till he win it by 

 industry or come to it by age or office-bearing. Every man that is 

 above sixty years of age shall have respect as a man of Honour by 

 all others that are younger, as is shewed hereafter. "^ 



The Levellers' crisis came in 1649. ^^ January the King was executed, 

 in February the Council of State deliberated measures for the sup- 

 pression of "disturbers of peace" in the army. Soldiers who attempted 

 to incite the army to mutiny were to be hanged. Lilburne immediately 

 published a pamphlet, England's New Chains Discovered, against 

 the Council of State. In March the army itself, stationed at New- 

 market, protested, in a Letter to General Fairfax and his officers, 

 signed by eight soldiers, who demanded the acceptance of the 

 Levellers' Agreement, and who were, a few days later, after a short 

 trial, expelled from the army. Twenty days later, the army Levellers 

 published a pamphlet with perhaps the most remarkable title of all, 

 The Hunting of the Foxes from Newmarket and Thriplow Heath to 

 Whitehall by five small beagles late of the Armie- or, The Grandee 

 Deceivers Unmasked. The "foxes," of course, were Cromwell, Ireton, 

 and the rest; and their ambitious subterfuges were here exposed. A 

 few days later there was a mutiny in London in Colonel Whalley's 

 cavalry regiment, and, though quickly suppressed, it gave rise to 

 a unique manifestation of popular feeling at the funeral of one of 

 the Leveller soldiers, Robert Lockyer. I quote the account from 

 Whitelocke's Memorials'^ 

 * 



''April T.^th, 1649. 



"Mr. Lockier, a trooper, who w^as shot to death by Sentence 

 of the Court Martial, was buried in this manner. 



"About one thousand went before the Corps, and five or 

 six in a File; the Corps was then brought, with six Trumpets 

 sounding a Soldier's Knell, then the Trooper's horse came 

 clothed all over in mourning and led by a foot man. 



"The Corps was adorned with Bundles of Rosemary, one- 

 half stained in Blood, and the Sword of the deceased with them. 



"Some thousands followed in Ranks and Files, all had Sea- 

 green and Black Ribbon tied on their Hats (the Levellers' 

 colours), and the Women brought up the Rear. 



^ Works, Sabine edn., p. 512. 



^ 'Whitelock, B., Memorials of the English Affairs (London, 1732), P- 397. 



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