Lilburne, on the dissolution of the long parliament, had requested
permission of Cromwell to return from banishment. Receiving no answer,
he came[a] over at his own risk,--a bold but imprudent step; for what
indulgence could he expect from that powerful adventurer, whom he had so
often denounced to the nation as "a thief, a robber, an usurper, and a
murderer?" On the day after his arrival in the capital he was committed to
Newgate. It seemed a case which might safely be intrusted to a jury. His
return by the act of banishment had been made felony; and of his identity
there could be no doubt. But his former partisans did not abandon him
in his distress. Petitions with thousands of signatures were presented,
praying for a respite of the trial till the meeting of the parliament;
and Cromwell, willing, perhaps, to shift the odium from himself to that
assembly, gave his consent. Lilburne petitioned the new parliament; his
wife petitioned; his friends from the neighbouring counties petitioned;
the apprentices in London did not only petition, they threatened. But the
council laid before the house the depositions of spies and informers
to prove that Lilburne, during his banishment, had intrigued with the
royalists against the commonwealth;[1] and the prisoner himself, by the
intemperance
[Footnote 1: It appears from Clarendon's Letters at the time, that Lilburne
was intimate with Buckingham, and that Buckingham professed to expect much
from him in behalf of the royal cause; while, on the contrary, Clarendon
believed that Lilburne would do nothing for it, and Buckingham not much
more.
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