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.