Page:The Leveller movement; a study in the history and political theory of the English Great Civil War (IA levellermovement01peas).djvu/107

 prison who lived on public charity and, when that means was cut off by the authorities, through another prisoner in the room above Lilburne’s. When he was sick to the point of death his servants and friends were often not allowed to dress his wounds. On one occasion, to save himself, as he thought, from being murdered outright, he had to hold his room as a fortress by force of arms.

The authorities had no punishment that could quell his courage. In May he was again examined as to his conduct in the pillory. His examiners only drew from him such bold language that they begged him to hold his peace and save himself. He challenged the bishops to dispute with him before the king, engaging himself to show their calling to be of the devil—a challenge that loses some of its ludicrousness when we consider the situation of the challenger. The spirit of his warfare against the bishops was dangerously infectious; and even at this stage in his career he had begun to show a power of moving the masses by speech or writing. When the attempt on his life was made, he circulated among the apprentices at their Whitsuntide holiday in Moorfields an appeal for succor. This, so Lilburne said afterwards, caused a riot against Laud among the apprentices that nearly saved the hangman a labor in the end. The crusader still, Lilburne reiterated his enmity to the bishops even while he begged the apprentices to petition the lord mayor to remove him to a prison where his life would be safer. “I would scorne to flie, for I am