Helpe! Wren,
Or we are undone men.
I shall not fall,
To ruin all.

_Cheap Cross._ I'm so crossed, I fear my utter destruction is at
hand.

_Charing Cross._ Sister of Cheap, crosses are incident to us all,
and our children. But what's the greatest cross that hath befallen
you?

_Cheap Cross._ Nay, sister; if my cross were fallen, I should live
at more heart's ease than I do.

_Charing Cross._ I believe it is the cross upon your head that hath
brought you into this trouble, is it not?

These disputes were the precursors of its final destruction. In May,
1643, the Parliament deputed Robert Harlow to the work, who went with a
troop of horse and two companies of foot, and executed his orders most
completely. The official account says rejoicingly:--

"On the 2nd of May, 1643, the cross in Cheapside was pulled down. At
the fall of the top cross drums beat, trumpets blew, and multitudes of
caps were thrown into the air, and a great shout of people with joy. The
2nd of May, the almanack says, was the invention of the cross, and the
same day at night were the leaden popes burnt (they were not popes, but
eminent English prelates) in the place where it stood, with ringing of
bells and great acclamation, and no hurt at all done in these actions."

The 10th of the same month, the "Book of Sports" (a collection of
ordinances allowing games on the Sabbath, put forth by James I.) was
burnt by the hangman, where the Cross used to stand, and at the
Exchange.

"Aleph" gives us the title of a curious tract, published the very day
the Cross was destroyed:--"The Downfall of Dagon; or, the Taking Down of
Cheapside Crosse; wherein is contained these principles: 1. The Crosse
Sicke at Heart. 2. His Death and Funerall. 3. His Will, Legacies,
Inventory, and Epitaph. 4. Why it was removed. 5. The Money it will
bring. 6. Noteworthy, that it was cast down on that day when it was
first invented and set up."

It may be worth giving an extract or two:--"I am called the 'Citie
Idoll;' the Brownists spit at me, and throw stones at me; others hide
their eyes with their fingers; the Anabaptists wish me knockt in pieces,
as I am like to be this day; the sisters of the fraternity will not come
near me, but go about by Watling Street, and come in again by Soaper
Lane, to buy their provisions of the market folks.... I feele the pangs
of death, and shall never see the end of the merry month of May; my