" In each, regulations were adopted, fixing
the number of men to be levied, armed, and trained, and the money which for
that purpose was to be raised in each township.--Rushworth, v. 66, 94-97,
119, 381.]
they were made responsible to no one but the parliament itself. Sir Henry
Vane, with three colleagues from the lower house, hastened to Scotland to
solicit the aid of a Scottish army; and, that London might be secure from
insult, a line of military communication was ordered to be drawn round the
city. Every morning thousands of the inhabitants, without distinction of
rank, were summoned to the task in rotation; with drums beating and colours
flying they proceeded to the appointed place, and their wives and daughters
attended to aid and encourage them during the term of their labour.[a] In a
few days this great work, extending twelve miles in circuit, was completed,
and the defence of the line, with the command of ten thousand men, was
intrusted to Sir William Waller. Essex, at the repeated request of the
parliament, reluctantly signed the commission, but still refused to insert
in it the name of his rival. The blank was filled up by order of the House
of Commons.[1]
Here, however, it is time to call the attention of the reader to the
opening career of that extraordinary man, who, in the course of the next
ten years, raised himself from the ignoble pursuits of a grazier to the
high dignity of lord protector of the three kingdoms.
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