think that the
crime of going one step further had been sufficiently expiated by thirty
years of banishment. Ludlow's admirers, some of whom appear to have
been in high public situations, assured him that he might safely venture
over, nay, that he might expect to be sent in high command to Ireland,
where his name was still cherished by his old soldiers and by their
children, [533] He came and early in September it was known that he
was in London, [534] But it soon appeared that he and his friends had
misunderstood the temper of the English people. By all, except a small
extreme section of the Whig party, the act, in which he had borne a part
never to be forgotten, was regarded, not merely with the disapprobation
due to a great violation of law and justice, but with horror such as
even the Gunpowder Plot had not excited. The absurd and almost impious
service which is still read in our churches on the thirtieth of January
had produced in the minds of the vulgar a strange association of ideas.
The sufferings of Charles were confounded with the sufferings of the
Redeemer of mankind; and every regicide was a Judas, a Caiaphas or a
Herod. It was true that, when Ludlow sate on the tribunal in Westminster
Hall, he was an ardent enthusiast of twenty eight, and that he now
returned from exile a greyheaded and wrinkled man in his seventieth
year. Perhaps, therefore, if he had been content to live in close
retirement, and to shun places of public resort, even zealous Royalists
might not have grudged the old Republican a grave in his native soil.
But he had no thought of hiding himself. It was soon rumoured that one
of those murderers, who had brought on England guilt, for which she
annually, in sackcloth and ashes, implored God not to enter into
judgment with her, was strutting about the streets of her capital, and
boasting that he should ere long command her armies. His lodgings, it
was said, were the head quarters of the most noted enemies of monarchy
and episcopacy, [535] The subject was brought before the House of
Commons. The Tory members called loudly for justice on the traitor. None
of the Whigs ventured to say a word in his defence. One or two faintly
expressed a doubt whether the fact of his return had been proved by
evidence such as would warrant a parliamentary proceeding. The objection
was disregarded. It was resolved, without a division, that the King
should be requested to issue a proclamation for the apprehending of
L