which the lord-general, with all his power, was foiled by the boldness of a
single individual.

[Footnote 1: They have been generally described as men in trade, and of
no education; and because one of them, Praise-God Barebone, was a
leather-dealer in Fleet-street, the assembly is generally known by the
denomination of Barebone's parliament.--Heath, 350. It is, however,
observed by one of them, that, "if all had not very bulky estates, yet they
had free estates, and were not of broken fortunes, or such as owed
great sums of money, and stood in need of privilege and protection as
formerly."--Exact Relation, 19. See also Whitelock, 559.]

At the very moment when he hoped to reap the fruit of his dissimulation and
intrigues, he found himself unexpectedly confronted by the same fearless
and enterprising demagogue, who, at the birth of the commonwealth, had
publicly denounced his ambition, and excited the soldiery against him.
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, Clarendo