After an address to
[Footnote 1: See Thurloe, v. 774-777; vi. 7, 53; Merc. Polit. No. 345;
Bates, Elen. 388; Clarendon Pap. iii. 324, 325, 327; Claren. Hist. iii.
646; and the several authorities copied in the State Trials, v. 842-871.
The body was opened, and the surgeons declared that there existed no trace
of poison in the stomach, but that the brain was inflamed and distended
with blood in a greater degree than is usual in apoplexy, or any known
disease. The jury, by the direction of the lord chief justice, returned a
verdict that "he, the said Miles Syndercombe, a certain poisoned powder
through the nose of him, the said Miles, into the head of him, the said
Miles, feloniously, wilfully, and of malice aforethought, did snuff and
draw; by reason of which snuffing and drawing so as aforesaid, into the
head of him, the said Miles, he the said Miles, himself did mortally
poison," &c.--Ibid. 859. The Levellers and royalists maintained that he was
strangled by order of Cromwell.--Clar. iii. 647.]
[Sidenote a: A.D. 1657. Feb. 13.]
Cromwell, and another to the army, both conceived in a strain of the most
poignant and sarcastic irony, it proceeds to discuss the three questions:
Whether the lord-protector be a tyrant? Whether it be lawful to do justice
on him by killing him? and, Whether this, if it be lawful, will prove
of benefit to the commonwealth? Having determined each question in the
affirmative, it concludes with an eulogium on the bold and patriotic spirit
of Syndercombe, the rival of Brutus and Cato, and a warning that "longus
illum sequitur ordo idem petentium decus;" that the protector's own
muster-roll contains the names of those who aspire to the honour of
delivering their country; that his highness is not secure at his table, or
in his bed; that death is at his heels wherever he moves, and that though
his head reaches the clouds, he shall perish like his own dung, and they
that have seen him shall exclaim, Where is he? Of this tract thousands of
copies were sent by Sexby into England; and, though many were seized by the
officers, yet many found their way into circulation.
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