nt of St.
Paul's, and there, after expostulating with the firing party for their
obedience to their officers in a deed of murder, he was shot to death."
Lockyer's funeral took place on the 29th, and was the occasion of a
remarkable demonstration, of which we take the following account from
the pages of Whitelocke's _Memorial of English Affairs_ (p. 399):
"Mr. Lockier a Trooper who was shot to death by Sentence of the
Court Martial was buried in this manner. About one thousand went
before the Corps, and five or six in a file, the Corps was then
brought with six Trumpets sounding a Soldier's Knell, then the
Trooper's Horse came clothed all over in mourning and led by a
Footman. The Corps was adorned with bundles of Rosemary, one half
stained with blood, and the Sword of the deceased with them. Some
thousands followed in Ranks and Files, all had Sea-green and black
Ribbon tied on their Hats and to their Breasts, and the Women
brought up the Rear. At the new Church Yard in Westminster some
thousands more of the better sort met them, who thought not fit to
march through the City. Many looked on this Funeral as an Affront
to the Parliament and Army; others called them Levellers, but they
took no notice of any of them."
In view of such a manifestation of the state of public opinion, we
cannot be surprised that Winstanley's eloquent and impressive appeals
awoke a responsive echo in the minds of many who would have shrunk from
following his example, or even from publicly avowing his creed.
Moreover, the miserable condition of the masses of the agricultural
population, of which we shall give some startling evidence later on,
must have prepared a soil favourable to his self-imposed mission, to
awaken them to a knowledge both of their rights and of their duties.
Especially welcome must have been doctrines in accordance with their
simple religious beliefs, as well as with their ancient and well-founded
traditions of certain inalienable rights to the use of the land: rights
that, as they well knew, had been filched from them under cover of laws
they had no voice in making, which they did not understand, and which
were enforced upon them by the power of the sword and gallows. We must
remember, however, that though the landholders had succeeded in
impoverishing, they had not yet succeeded in degrading the people; some
remnant of the old English spirit was still
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