Some parties would be brought over by seeming to
fall in with their views, others cajoled by bribing their leaders, but
the levellers and fanatics were invincible. They had been Cromwell's
agents in subduing his enemies, and a consciousness of their power made
them unmanageable; they were determined on owning no King but Jesus, and
on thinking the regal title, when assumed by man, the mark of the beast
and the seal of reprobation to its supporters. "The Protector's
son-in-law, Fleetwood, kneeled and prayed publickly, that the Lord might
spit in his face if the unrighteous mammon tempted him into this sin;
and his brother Desborough anathematized him, and vowed to devote his
own sword to Charles Stewart sooner than to him, if he persevered in
longing for the forbidden spoil." Lambert, who was in the entire
confidence of these two, had seduced the affections of the army;
Cromwell, therefore, had a difficult game to play. His passionate desire
of royalty combated those secret fears that arose from a mysterious
warning which he received when he first meditated on the designs
afterwards realized by his lucky and unprincipled ambition.
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