=Source.=--_Journal of George Fox._ London, 1694. Vol. i., pp.
136-138.
After this I went into the country, and had several Meetings, and
came to Swannington where the soldiers came again, but the Meeting
was quiet, and the Lord's power was over all, and the soldiers
did not meddle. Then I went to Leicester, and from Leicester to
Whetstone. But before the meeting began, there came about seventeen
troopers of Colonel Hacker's regiment, with his Marshal, and they
took me up before the meeting, though Friends were beginning to
gather together, for there were several Friends come out of several
parts. I told the Marshal, "He might let all the Friends go, I would
answer for them all;" whereupon he took me and let all the Friends
go; only Alexander Parker went along with me. At night they had me
before Col. Hacker and his Major, and Captains, a great company of
them; and a great deal of discourse we had about the priests, and
about meetings (for at this time there was a noise of a plot against
O. Cromwell).... Then Col. Hacker asked me again "If I would go home
and stay at home?" I told him "If I should promise him so, that would
manifest that I was guilty of something, to go home and make my home
a prison. And if I went to Meetings, they would say I broke their
Order." Therefore I told them I should go to Meetings as the Lord
should order me; and therefore could not submit to their requirings;
but I said we were a peaceable people. "Well then," said Colonel
Hacker, "I will send you to-morrow morning by six o'clock to my Lord
Protector by Captain Drury, one of his life guard." That night I was
kept a prisoner at the Marshalsea; and the next morning by the sixth
hour I was ready, and delivered to Captain Drury. I desired he would
let me speak with Col. Hacker before I went, and he had me to his
bedside. Col. Hacker at me presently again "To go home and keep no
more Meetings." I told him I could not submit to that.... "Then,"
said he, "you must go before the Protector." Whereupon I kneeled
on his Bedside and besought the Lord to forgive him, for he was as
Pilate, though he would wash his hands; and when the day of his
misery and trial should come upon him, I bid him then remember what
I had said to him.... Afterwards when this Col. Hacker was in prison
in London, a day or two before he was executed, he was put in mind of
what he had done against the innocent....
Now was I carried up a prisoner by Captain Drury aforesaid from
Leicester.... So he brought me to London, and lodged me at the
Mermaid over against the Mews at Charing Cross. And on the way as
we travelled I was moved of the Lord to warn people at the inns and
places where I came of the day of the Lord that was coming upon
them. And William Dewsbury and Marmaduke Stor being in prison at
Northampton, he let me go and visit them.
After Captain Drury had lodged me at the Mermaid, he left me there
and went to give the protector an account of me. And when he came to
me again, he told me the Protector did require that I should promise
not to take up a carnal sword or weapon against him or the government
as it then was, and that I should write it, in what words I saw good,
and set my hand to it. I said little in reply to Captain Drury. But
the next morning, I was moved of the Lord to write a paper "to the
Protector by the name of Oliver Cromwell," wherein I did in the
presence of God declare that I did deny the wearing and drawing of a
carnal sword, or any other outward weapon against him or any man. And
that I was sent of God to stand a witness against all violence and
against the works of Darkness, to turn the people from Darkness to
Light and to bring them from the occasion of war and fighting to the
peaceable Gospel.... When I had written what the Lord had given me to
write, I set my name to it and gave it to Captain Drury to give to O.
Cromwell, which he did.
Then after some time Captain Drury brought me before the Protector
himself at Whitehall. It was in a morning before he was dressed....
When I came in, I was moved to say "Peace be in this House," and I
bid him keep in the fear of God that he might receive wisdom from
him.... I spake much to him of Truth, and a great deal of Discourse
I had with him about Religion; wherein he carried himself very
moderately. But he said we quarrelled with the priests whom he called
Ministers. I said we did not quarrel with them, but they quarrelled
with me and my friends. "But," I said, "if we own the Prophets,
Christ and the Apostles, we cannot hold up such teachers, prophets
and shepherds, as the Prophets, Christ and the Apostles declared
against...." As I spake, he would several times say it was very good,
and it was truth. I told him that all Christendom (so-called) had
the Scriptures, but they wanted the power and spirit that they had
which gave forth the Scriptures.... Many more words I had with him;
but people coming in, I drew a little back. And as I was turning, he
catched me by the hand and with tears in his eyes, said "Come again
to my House, for if thou and I were but an hour of a day together, we
should be nearer one to the other," adding, that he wished me no more
ill than he did to his own soul. I told him; if he did, he wronged
his own soul. And I bid him hearken to God's voice, ... and if he
did not hear God's voice, his heart would be hardened. And he said:
it was true. Then went I out. And when Captain Drury came out after
me, he told me his Lord Protector said, I was at liberty, and might
go whither I would. Then I was brought into a great Hall where the
Protector's gentlemen were to dine, and I asked them what they did
bring me thither for. They said it was by the Protector's order that
I might dine with them. I bid them let the Protector know I would not
eat a bit of his bread nor drink a sup of his drink. When he heard
this he said: "Now I see there is a people risen and come up, that
I cannot win either with gifts, honours, offices or places: but all
other sects and people I can." But it was told him again, that we had
forsook our own and were not like to look for such things from him.
Now I, being set at liberty, went up to the Inn again, where
Captain Drury had at first lodged me. This Captain Drury, though
he sometimes carried fairly, was an enemy to me and to truth and
opposed it ... and would scoff at trembling and call us Quakers,
as the Presbyterians and Independents had nicknamed us before. But
afterwards he came on a time and told me, that as he was lying on his
bed to rest himself in the daytime, a sudden trembling seized on him
that his joints knocked together ... and he was so shaken that he had
not strength enough to rise. But he felt the power of the Lord was
upon him and he tumbled off his bed and cried to the Lord and said,
he would never speak against the Quakers more, such as trembled at
the word of God.