e which promised the return of
tranquillity in the place of solicitude, danger, and misery. The protector,
however, did not neglect the means of consolidating his own authority.
Availing himself of the powers intrusted to him by the "instrument," he
gave the chief commands in the army to men in whom he could confide;
quartered the troops in the manner best calculated to put down any
insurrection; and, among the multitude of ordinances which he published,
was careful to repeal the acts enforcing the Engagement; to forbid all
meetings on racecourses or at cockpits, to explain what offences should be
deemed treason against his government; and to establish a high court of
justice for the trial of those who might be charged with such offences.

He could not, however, be ignorant that, even among the former companions
of his fortunes, the men who had fought and bled by his side, there were
several who, much as they revered the general, looked on the protector with
the most cordial abhorrence.[a] They were stubborn, unbending republicans,
partly from political, partly from religious, principle. To them he
affected to unbosom himself without reserve. He was still, he protested,
the same humble individual whom they had formerly known him. Had he
consulted his own feelings, "he would rather have taken the staff of a
shepherd" than the dignity of protector. Necessity had imposed the office
upon him; he had sacrificed his own happiness to preserve his countrymen
from anarchy and ruin; and, as he now bore the burden with reluctance, he
would lay it down with joy, the moment he could do so with safety to

[Sidenote a: A.D. 1654.]

the nation. But this language made few proselytes. They had too often
already been the dupes of his hypocrisy, the victims of their own
credulity; they scrupled not, both in public companies, and from the
pulpit, to pronounce him "a dissembling perjured villain;" and they openly
threatened him with "a worse fate than had befallen the last tyrant." If it
was necessary to silence these declaimers, it was also dangerous to treat
them with severity. He proceeded with caution, and modified his displeasure
by circumstances. Some he removed from their commissions in the army and
their ministry in the church; others he did not permit to go at large,
till they had given security for their subsequent behaviour; and those who
proved less tractable, or appeared more dangerous, he incarcerated in the
Tower. Among the l