nd
the Royalists, on the other, were to be drawn into the movement, if
indeed there had not been actual communications already with agents
of Charles II. It may be a question how far Overton himself was a
party to the design; but it is certain that he had relapsed into his
former anti-Oliverian humour, and was very uneasy in his post at
Aberdeen. "I bless the Lord," he writes mysteriously from that town,
Dec. 26, in answer to a letter of condolence from some friend--"I
bless the Lord I do remember you and yours (by whom I am much
remembered) so far as I am able in everything. I know right well you
and others do it much for me; and, pray, dear Sir, do it still. Heave
me up upon the wings of your prayers to Him who is a God hearing
prayers and granting requests. Entreat Him to enable me to stand to
his Truth; which I shall not do if He deject or forsake me." This
letter, as well as several letters _to_ Overton, had been
intercepted by Monk's vigilance; and hardly had it been written when
Overton was arrested by Monk's orders, and brought to Leith. At Leith
his papers were searched, and there was found in his letter-case
this copy of verses in his own hand:--

"A Protector! What's that? 'Tis a stately thing
That confesseth itself but the ape of a King;
A tragical Caesar acted by a clown,
Or a brass farthing stamped with a kind of crown;
A bauble that shines, a loud cry without wool;
Not Perillus nor Phalaris, but the bull;
The echo of Monarchy till it come;
The butt-end of a barrel in the shape of a drum;
A counterfeit piece that woodenly shows;
A golden effigies with a copper nose;
The fantastic shadow of a sovereign head;
The arms-royal reversed, and disloyal instead;
In fine, he is one we may Protector call,--
From whom the King of Kings protect us all!"

With this piece of doggrel, the intercepted letters, and the other
informations, Overton was shipped off by Monk from Leith to London on
the 4th of January, 1654-5; and on the 16th of that month he was
committed to the Tower. Thence the next day he wrote a long letter to
a private friend, in which he enumerates the charges against him, and
replies to them one by one. He denies that he has broken trust with
the Protector; he denies that he is a Leveller; and, what pleases us
best of all, he denies the authorship of the doggrel lines just
quoted. His exact words about these may be given. "But, say some, you
made a copy of scandalous ver