vour awakened new hopes;
recourse was had to flattery and entreaty; bribes were offered and
accepted; and the following morning[c] new petitions were presented. The
fate of Holland occupied a debate of considerable interest. Among the
Independents he had many personal friends, and the Presbyterians exerted
all their influence in his favour. But the saints expatiated on his
repeated apostasy from the cause; and, after a sharp contest, Cromwell and
Ireton obtained a majority of a single voice for his death. The case of
Goring was next considered. No man during the war had treated his opponents
with more bitter contumely, no one had inflicted on them deeper injuries;
and yet, on an equal division, his life was saved by the casting voice
of the speaker. The sentences of Hamilton and Capel were affirmed by the
unanimous vote of the house; but, to the surprise of all men, Owen, a
stranger, without friends or interest, had the good fortune to escape. His
forlorn condition moved the pity of Colonel Hutchinson; the efforts of
Hutchinson

[Sidenote a: A.D. 1649. March 6.]
[Sidenote b: A.D. 1649. March 7.]
[Sidenote c: A.D. 1649. March 8.]

were seconded by Ireton; and so powerful was their united influence, that
they obtained a majority of five in his favour. Hamilton, Holland, and
Capel died[a] on the scaffold, the first martyrs of loyalty after the
establishment of the commonwealth.[1]

But, though the avowed enemies of the cause crouched before their
conquerors, there was much in the internal state of the country to awaken
apprehension in the breasts of Cromwell and his friends. There could be no
doubt that the ancient royalists longed for the opportunity of avenging the
blood of the king; or that the new royalists, the Presbyterians, who sought
to re-establish the throne on the conditions stipulated by the treaty in
the Isle of Wight, bore with impatience the superiority of their rivals.
Throughout the kingdom the lower classes loudly complained of the burthen
of taxation; in several parts they suffered under the pressure of penury
and famine. In Lancashire and Westmoreland numbers perished through want;
and it was certified by the magistrates of Cumberland that thirty thousand
families in that county "had neither seed nor bread corn, nor the means of
procuring either."[2] But that which chiefly created alarm was the progress
made among the military by the "Levellers," men of consistent principles
and uncompromising conduc