"_This to make known that our worthy and well-trusted servant, Colonel
Nathaniel Fiennes, has our commission to undertake the government of our
good and faithful city of Bristol, and we hereby direct and do command
that all persons submit and yield due obedience to the lawful authority
so holden by him_.
"_Signed_, _Lenthal_."
The astonished colonel made some vapouring protest in speech, but not by
action. For the son of Lord Saye and Sele had not come thither
unattended. At his back was a _posse_ of stalwart fellows--soldiers,
who, that same morning, were under the orders of him now being placed in
arrest, but, having learnt there was a change of commanding officers,
knew better than to refuse obedience to the new one.
So the deposed governor, forced to part company with his _convives_, was
carried off to prison as a common malefactor. He, too, the son of the
Earl of Essex, Lord General of the Parliamentary army--the Parliament
itself having ordered it! Verily, these were days when men feared not
to arraign and punish--unlucky times for tyrants and traitors! To have
concealed a deficit of four thousand pounds in the national exchequer
_then_ would have been a more dangerous deception than to waste as many
millions _now_, without being able to render account of them.