ombe's Plot of Feb. 1656-7, and the
subsequent proposal of the Kingship for Cromwell, had excited them
prodigiously, and they had been longing for action, and looking about
for leaders. Harrison was their chief hope, and they had applied to
him, but also to other Republicans who were not specially
Fifth-Monarchy Men, such as Rich, Lawson, and Okey. What
encouragement they had or thought they had from such men one does not
know; but they had fixed Thursday, April 9, the very day of the
appointment of the great Committee of Ninety-nine to deal with
Cromwell about the Kingship, for an experimental rendezvous and
standard-raising on Mile-End-Green. This being known to Thurloe, a
horse-troop or two finished the affair by the capture of about twenty
of them at Shoreditch, ready to ride to Mile-End-Green, and also by
the capture at Mile-End-Green itself of their intended standard, some
arms, and a quantity of Fifth-Monarchy books and manifestos. Five or
six of the captured, among whom was Thomas Venner, a wine-cooper, the
real soul of the conspiracy, were imprisoned in the Tower, and the
rest elsewhere; but, in accordance with Cromwell's lenient custom in
such cases, there was no trial, or other public notice of the affair,
beyond a report about it by Thurloe to the House (April 11).
Harrison, however, was again arrested, with Rich, Lawson, and Major
Danvers; and amongst those taken was a Mr. Arthur Squib, who had been
in the Barebones Parliament, and one of Harrison's chief followers
there. Squib's connexion with Venner in the present wretched
conspiracy seems to have been much closer than Harrison's.[1]

[Footnote 1: Godwin, IV. 372-375; Carlyle, III. 228-229; Thomason
Catalogue of Pamphlets; Commons Journals, April 11, 1657; Thurloe, I.
289.]

Cromwell had used the Venner outbreak to point a moral in one or two
of his speeches on the Kingship Question. The standard taken at
Mile-End-Green bore a Red Lion couchant, with the motto _Who shall
rouse him up?;_ and among the tracts or manifestos taken was one
called _A Standard set up, whereunto the true Seed and Saints of
the Most High may be gathered together for the lamb, against the
Beast and the False Prophet_. It was a fierce diatribe against
Cromwell, with a scheme for the government of the Commonwealth on
Fifth-Monarchy principles after his overthrow. The supreme authority
was to be the Lord Jesus Christ; but there was to be an annually
elected Sanhedrim or Supreme Cou