A Faithful Soldier; OR THE SPEECH OF A Private Soldier Concerning his ARREARS. And putting the CAPTAIN to Death. Dedicated to Parson PETERS'S Seconds, Smith, Care, Harris, Curtis, and to all the Crew.  
Fellow Soldiers,  
HEar me a word or two; I have somewhat to say which concerns every man of us: We hear they intent to put the King to Death: They know (Fellow Soldiers) it is in our Power to save his Life; for if we think fit to have him live, neither Council nor Commissioners will dare to touch him; and as our Case yet stands, I think we are stark mad if we suffer him to die: For as yet they have not paid us our Arrears, and perhaps never will when the King is once dead: They promised to pay us this day and that day; but now they confess, that indeed they dare not give us our Arrears: For they say, If we Soldiers once had all our Money, we would soon disband and go home to our Friends. Is this fair Dealing? By this Rule we must never have it: For they can always say they dare not trust us. This makes them give us now and then a Pittance, which scarce keeps Life and Soul together; but for our Arrears, (which are as truly ours as the  upon our Backs) we may wait long enough: For if the King be put to Death, there will be such Weeping, such Cursing and Raging; All England will cry out, and say, O ye Bloody Soldiers, have ye Murdered our King? Ye took Oaths and Covenants to defend his Person, and now have you cut his Throat? Truly (Fellow Soldiers) we are arrant Fools, to make the World hate us for Killing the King, and yet we not be one penny the better for it: If we see cause, we can any time hereafter take away his Life, when we have our Arrears, and things are better settled; but if now we shed his Blood, we can never make him alive again; therefore, before we do that which can never be undone, let us Soldiers make our best use of it: Let us declare, That until they pay us all our Arrears, they shall not put the King to Death; let us do this, and (on my Life) it will bring in every penny of our Money: You shall see, they will strive who shall first pay us; those that are so hot to have the King's Blood, will pay us rather than let him live; and those who are his Friends, will give us any thing, rather than let him die. My Landlord told me, that if we Soldiers would save the King's Life (which we can easily do) the King's Friends would pay us all our Arrears, and give us 200000 l. as a Gratuity; besides, he bid us name our Sum, and it should be paid us down upon the Nail: And why (Fellow Soldiers) should we refuse this? Now is the time; for when the King is dead, they will not give us twopences.  
We know the Scots would not part with the King until they had their 200000 l. and are not our Arrears as due as theirs? Nay, when the Parliament got the King, they would have kept him, had not we resolutely fetched him from Holdenby; yet while they had him, they grew so high, that they offered to disband us without paying all Arrears. Then we got the King, and while we used him civilly, all England was for us: Who then but the Army, the King and the Army were in every Man's Mouth? But as soon as we clapped him in Carisbrook Castle, and suffered none to make Addresses to him, than all the Kingdom cried out upon the Army; each County began to rise upon us: You know what Work we had in Wales, Kent, Essex, Twenty Thousand Scots pouring in upon us; who, if they had but the Twentieth part of our English Courage, we had found a hard Task of it; So still you see the King is All in All: Whoever got the King, had the Hearts of the People; in all our Quarters, and wherever we Marched, ye heard the People still calling for their King: If they hate us, and fought with us for keeping him in Prison, how will they rage's when they see us cut his Throat? Think ye that then they will pay us our Arrears? I say (Fellow Soldiers) we are all stark mad if we let the King die till we have our Money.  
But perhaps some will say, That the Council of War does not hinder our Arrears, That they are Officers, and would be as glad of their Money as we would. I confess indeed, some Officers would, for some are in the same Case with us; but the Chief Commanders, and the Grandees are of another Mind; they have all at Command, Sequestrations, Offices, Parliament and All: Lieutenant-General Cromwell hath many Thousand Pounds a Year of the Earl of Worcester's Estate. They can pay themselves; but when will they pay us; They make the Parliament Vote what they please: Nay, (Fellow Soldiers) when we took the Money from Weavers Hall, the Council of War refused to let us have it; but voted, forsooth, to send it to the Navy: He that writes the Occurrences says so in Print; and the other day, they and the House voted 200000 l. more for the Navy: They know the Seamen can pay themselves; they have Ships in their Power, as we now have the King in our Power; and should we serve them as the Seamen served them, perhaps than we might have our Arrears; but if at any time we ask for Money, Mr. Peter is hired to stop our Mouths, that Fellow hath cozened us I know not how often; and by my Consent, when next he comes, let us clap him Neck and Heels: He said they would pay us as soon as we came to London; but here we have waited two Months longer, yet no Arrears: Then they told us, that the Parliament was full of rotten Members, and the House must be purged  we could be paid. I think we gave it a sufficient Purge; we imprisoned, and drove away so many Members, that we have not left above Fifty or Threescore; not a Member sits now, but such as our Council of War approved of; and both they, and our Council have sat Seven Weeks, yet no Arrears: Alas (Fellow Soldiers) these are all Tricks, mere Tricks, they can never want such Excuses as these; and if now we let them take the King, and put him to Death, we may go whistle for our Arrears.  
But suppose now we had our Arrears, which we are not like if we lose this Opportunity, are we the better for this King's Death? When he is gone, either we must have another King, or a new kind of Government; and this new Government will be either a Parliament or a Committee, or many Kings at once: For Parliaments and Committees, we know how they have used us; they voted and gathered up Wealth for themselves, but let us bleed and starve, sink or Swim, all was one to them; and for many Kings at once, they say, that heretofore England had six or seven Kings at a time; but these petty Kings were little better than one of our Colonels, and they never left cutting one another's Throats, till all again came under one King: If then we must have but one King still, why should we kill this King? We know, when he dies, his Son, the Prince of Wales is King: What, must we cut his Throat also? We cannot if we would; and this King's Blood will stick so upon us, and make us so abominable to all the People, we shall have small Heart to kill any more Kings; but were it in our Power to destroy this King and all his Posterity, and all the Kings in Christendom, who are his Allies, who then shall be our King? The Council says in our Remonstrance, we must have an Elective King; but whom shall we elect? If we choose our General, alas, he will be seduced by wicked Council: We know he is a gallant Man in the Field; but at Councils of War, he does little, and speaks less; he is fit to be our General than our King; or shall Lieutenant-General Cromwell be the Man? The truth is, they talk most of him, and I believe he looks to be a King; and therefore I should think him unfittest of all. Six Years since he was but Captain Cromwell; and if now he be such a great Man, it is our Swords have made him so. Should any man have said to us six Years ago, Ye Soldiers shall fight, and never leave fight till ye have cut King Charles his Throat, and made Captain Cromwell King of England?  
I think we all should have thought that Man mad; and yet (Fellow Soldiers) this is our Case: Have we not spun a fine Thread? Let who will be King, we shall be but Private Soldiers still. I remember a Tale of a Knight and a Carrier; the Knight coming from London, met the Carrier, and told him News, how King Edward was Murdered, and Crook-backed Richard was Crowned King of England. Alas, Sir, said the Carrier, what is that to me? I shall be but a Carrier still: So whether it be King Charles, or King Cromwell, we shall be but Private Soldiers still. What are Crowns and Sceptres to us? When the King was at Carisbrook and Hampton Court, he offered to pay us all our Arrears, and to grant us the Militia as long as he lived: Can any King say more? For my part, I like him as well as Lieutenant-General Cromwell. King Charles is as liberal as Lieutenant-General Cromwell. King Charles is as chaste as Lieutenant-General Cromwell. King Charles is as merciful as Lieutenant-General Cromwell. King Charles is as wise as Lieutenant-General Cromwell. King Charles is as temperate as Lieutenant-General Cromwell. King Charles is as patiented as Lieutenant-General Cromwell. King Charles is as handsome a Man as Lieutenant-General Cromwell. King Charles hath as sweet Children as Lieutenant-General Cromwell. King Charles is as well descended as Lieutenant-General Cromwell. Remember when first we refused to Disband, it was for our Arrears and Indemnity, confirmed by the Royal Assent. We had an Ordinance of both Houses, but we wanted his Majesty's Royal Assent. What, can we have his Assent after we have cut his Throat? Sure we are all mad: Alas (Fellow Soldiers) What good can the King's Blood do us? We now can save his Life with a wet Finger: Let us do it, we shall get all our Arrears, Indemnity, and every thing; all the Kingdom, City and Country will love us and pray for us. Now or never (Fellow Soldiers) Let us save our Credit, save our Arrears, save our King's Life, One and All, God's Blessing go along with us.  
FINIS.   

London, Printed in the Year 1680/1.