urderers after they were
condemned; and we were fain to stand all night, for we could not sit
down, the place was so filthy. We sent a copy of our sufferings to the
Protector, who sent down General Desborough to offer us liberty if we
would go home and preach no more; but we could not promise him. At last
he freely set us at liberty, and in Cornwall, Devonshire, Dorsetshire,
and Somersetshire, the truth began to spread mightily.

After a little while Edward Pyot and I were moved to speak to Oliver
Cromwell again concerning the sufferings of Friends, and we laid them
before him, and directed him to the light of Christ. Afterwards we
passed on through the counties to Wales, and by Manchester to Scotland;
but the Scots, being a dark, carnal people, gave little heed, and hardly
took notice of what was said.

And when I had returned to London I was moved to write again to Oliver
Cromwell. There was a rumour about this time of making Cromwell king,
whereupon I warned him against it, and he seemed to take well what I
said to him, and thanked me. Taking boat to Kingston, and thence to
Hampton Court, to speak with him about the sufferings of Friends, I met
him riding into Hampton Court Park before I came to him. As he rode at
the head of his life-guards, I felt a waft of death go forth against
him, and he looked like a dead man. After I had warned him, as I was
moved, he bid me come to his house. But when I came he was sick, so I
passed away, and never saw him more.

After, I was imprisoned in Lancaster, but when I had been in gaol twenty
weeks was released on King Charles being satisfied of my innocency. Then
I was tried at Leicester and found guilty, but was set at liberty
suddenly. And at Lancaster I was tried because when they tendered me the
oaths of allegiance and supremacy I would not take any oath at all, and
there I was a prisoner in the castle for Christ's sake, but was never
called to hear sentence given, but was removed by an order from the king
and council. And afterwards I lay a year in Scarborough gaol, but was
discharged by order of the king as a man of peaceable life.

And on the 2nd of the second month of the year 1674 I was brought to
trial at Worcester, and during my imprisonment there I wrote several
books for the press, and this imprisonment so much weakened me that I
was long before I recovered my natural strength again, and in later
years my body was never able to bear the closeness of cities long.