THE LAMENTATION OF The Safe Committee.  
OR, Fleetwood's Tears, Hewson's Last, Desborough's Cart, Met together at Hangmans-FAYRE. WITH Their Neck-verses, and several Discourses thereon.  
LONDON, Printed for William Gilbertson. 1660.   
Enter Fleetwood. F. 
YOur most humble servant Col. Hewson.  Hue. 
A poor Cobbler thanks you sir: but I have been your servant too long for my profit as it falls out now.  F. 
Why Col. Hewson what mischief soever you have done for me and my brethren I believe you have had your deserts for't  H. 
No not so neither Sir, for if I had I'd been hanged at Wallingford House a twelvemonth a go.  F. 
Why? I hope you never lost by me Coll. Hewson?  H. 
I am sure I never got by ye, except 'twas shame, reproach, and ignominy.  F. 
Truly Coll. Hewson 'twas even such as I had myself, therefore be content, for what the Devil sent me, even such take you and be thankful.  H. 
Thankful! for what Mr. Fleetwood?  F. 
For the Commission you took of me at Wallingford House last winter, when you went into the City and killed a apprentice boy, whereby you got your honour.  H. 
took a Commission of you then, the Devil pick your bones; I would I had took a Cobbler's stalle at that time, 'twould have saved me the price of my Neck I am sure on't.  F. 
No, no Coll. Hewson the old proverb says, 'tis craft un the catching; and you are safe yet.  H. 
Oh 'las Mr. Fleetwood you talk, know ye not the Fox is craftier than all Beasts, yet he is hunted by the scent of his sizling Tail, that through his loathsomeness he is catcht at last.  F. 
What, than you think the odiousness of our action, will cause all people to hunt after us?  H. 
Ay, and all the world will endeavour to take us.  F. 
But how will they know us Brother Hewson?  H. 
O too well Brother Fleetwood, I by my blind eye, which now might wish I never had any at all. And you by your long spare neck, I would a had been hanged twenty years ago, than we had quit all these calamities,  F. 
Ay, ay, I could say so to Brother Hewson, and wish as the Scripture saith; That a Millstone had been hanged about my Neck and that I had been cast in the bottom of the Sea, before I had been plunged in all these sorrows; and the Scripture saith, Yet they are but the beginning of Sorrows.  H. 
Ay, ay, Brother Fleetwood, you were ever prone so to Scripture Language, that the Devil a good word proceeded from your mouth at last.  F. 
Why Brother Hewson, I thought you to be a downright destroyer, Translator of Religion, as you were formerly of Boots and Shoes.  H. 
Ay Brother Fleetwood, 'twas better than go through stitch, than now through Treason, I was termed then an honest Cobbler, now called an errand Traitor; but the Devil bewitched you to stir up smoke from quenched flames, in sending me with my poor reprobates many wanting Hose and Shoes, into the awakened City, where we seemed unto them like so many Sprights, or as a wooden packsaddle on a galld horse bach, spurning, kicking, and spitting at us; so these wrought our destruction.  F. 
Nay but Brother Hewson, I thought to Reform Religion, and promote the An●baptists, which promised me great sums of Money.  H. 
O you should have taken the Money, by all means in the world; and let them been hanged.  F. 
Faith that had been the best way Brother Hewson, but now I fear we shall be hanged, therefore prepare yourself.  H. 
Prepare myself brother Fleetwood, truly I believe the whole Kingdom can testify, that we were ready for't a Dozen Years ago.  H. 
But I told you often times and severally, not to plunge your soft brain of destruction, in the ruins of Religion, but rest quietly in your den of sedition, eating up the fat of the Land, and reaping the fruits of other men's benefits; and was not this a brave, sweet, Jewish, heritical life for us two to a lived in?  E. 
Ay truly brother, but in those days I did not much listen to ye, for my heart was waxed gross, and my ears were dull of hearing, my tongue was full of deceit, and my hands were full of cheating, and truly I thought to administer and execute injustice and Destruction impartially, throughout the whole Kingdom, till my seditions began to departed from me, and that Sea Monster appeared out of Scotland.  H. 
Out of Scotland do ye say? you know very well that we had as active Idolising hypocrites, in Scotland and Ireland, both for fraud and confusion as we ourselves were, had they but obeyed our Special Commands.  F. 
Well brother Hewson, we had Devilish failings in altering our Church Government.  H: 
Ay brother Fleetwood so we had, but for good sums of money we would have endeavoured too, to have altered the foundation of England.  F. 
Why, would you have ventured the other eye for it?  H. 
Ay Faith brother that I would, both body and soul, I love Money so well.  F. 
But what Churches would you have had then?  H. 
Churches, none at all, did not I forewarn you always not to meddle with Church government.  F: 
Why brother Hewson, did you see me meddle with the government to promote it? Indeed I must confess, the Churches I would have pulled down as fast as I dould; But for worship, I did in my Den, like a Hog in his sty, you know very well I never stirred a foot out of doors.  F. 
But did you think of no Religion then Brother Hewson?  H. 
No as god judge my Soul brother Fleetwood, no more than I did of my dying day.  F. 
What, were you led by the Spirit altogether?  H: 
Yes truly, but I had Devilish failings.  F. 
But what makes that terrible shaking in your head, and your left hand?  H. 
Why truly that come of a Dream two years ago, for I thought the King was coming home, and with the affright the very horror of my conscience fumed up into my head, whereby it continued ever since.  F. 
But what Action were you employed in brother Hewson, when you lost that eye?  H. 
O brother Fleetwood when I lost that eye, would both yours had dropped out, than the Nation had been a great dale the better for't, and we might have kept our heads on, which now lies in a dangerous quere:  F. 
Why, will they head us d'ye think?  H. 
Head us, or Hang us, it's all one to them.  F. 
Ay but Dun will not do it I am sure out. Oh brother 'tis sorry trusting him, for he has hanged many a one for less cause, I'll warrant ye.  

Neck-Verse.  
THen come thou noble handed Blade,  
Show thy de●erity;  
Since fortune proved, such a jade;  
I must submit to thee.  
Though once I thought I never should  
Be subject to a King,  
When like to Nero I did rule,  
I was more Lord than him.  
I thought I was the best of Men  
And all the people knew,  
An Oracle I seemed then,  
To my seditious crew.  
My actions base and infinite  
And to the world is known,  
But all the joys I have in it  
I shall not die alone.   H. 
Dye alone brother Fleetwood, no, no, there's a hundred, and a hundred, will be hanged besides you and I.  F. 
O it may be you do mean the Rump, but they were not above fourscore.  H. 
Ay, but when they and we come together, we make a Devilish number.  F. 
Why then the Devil was in them as well as we?  H. 
Ay brother that ye may be sure on, for he was no respecter of persons.  F. 
I would he had run us into the middle of the Sea then, as he did the Heard of Swine.  H. 
Nay brother Fleetwood, he had rather run us to be hanged first I doubt, he owed us a shame and we shall fully be paid it.  F. 
Oh but alas, here comes my brother Desborough; your most humble servant Coll. Desborough.  Des. 
A Colonel, a Hangman.  F. 
Why a Hangman brother Desbrough?  D. 
It's better be a hangman, then to be hanged myself.  F. 
Come, come, brother Desbrough, let's bear good Cheer as long as we are alive.  D. 
Ay and that's impossible it should be long.  F. 
Then let us go to prayers a little.  D. 
Ay as little as you please, for I could never pray in all my life.  F. 
What say you brother Hewson?  H. 
Why truly I say thus, I have no more patience to pray, than I have to be hanged.  F. 
Alas dear brethren I cannot blame ye.  D. 
Truly brother, a great many do, though they do not.  F. 
Why, what's the news, in those parts you have been?  D. 
Nothing but noise over all the Countries roaring in the valleys, like hunts men after wolves, and all their Cry is, Fleetwood, Desbrough, and Hewson.  F: 
Why, do they know that we are in the Country?  D. 
Ay, as well as you yourselves do.  F. 
O sad news, sad news, but what do they call us?  D. 
Call us, they term us to be Vagabonds, Runagades, and Fugatives, bearing the mark of the beast, and the curse of Cain; threatening every one that meet, us to slay us,  F. 
Alas a day, and how come you so safe hither?  D. 
Truly with much ado, a greater hazard than I was in at the taking of Tredath in Ireland.  F. 
Why, did they ever atttempt upon ye?  D. 
O several times, and once I was feign to leap into a house of office, and there I kept my office above a quarter of an hour; receiving such a scent, enough to Ravish any Car Horse in London, but being but counterfeit attempt, I retired to the house again, thinking to shift my all scented garment; the woman of the house bid me be gone for a stinking knave or else she'd fetch the Constable, which I had rather a heard talk of the Devil at that time, and so I tripped over the plain, with all the dogs in the town after me.  F. 
Alas dear brother, thou hast been persecuted as well as I: Pray what's yours? Truly when I forsook London, I was dressed in a poor grey suit, and I went into Surry, where near unto Darkin, as I was going over a Style an unmannerly Spill catcht me by the poor conditioned Breeches and ripped them up to the waste, which made me trip two miles out of my way to have them repaired.  D. 
But whether was the Spirit leading you then?  F. 
My intended place was to Hampshire, to meet with some of my brother Traitors, but fortune not much favouring us, I designed my purpose, hither to Lanceston.  D. 
O brother Fleetwood, I cannot choose but think what a Devilish fate have hanged over our heads, ever since our Grand Sire Nol took's leave.  F. 
O ay brother Desbrough in his days we behaved ourselves like three stout, valiant Divils', which caused us still to have Devilish fortune, but now let us sit down and say on this manner.  

O Fortune why hast thou beguiled me?  
Which in thy bosom always did me Nurse,  
Couldst thou not find no other plagues for me  
but this to make me only be accursed;  
Which is in Scripture written plain you see,  
Cur'st is the man that hangeth on a tree.   

I poor blind Hewson, Cobbler am by Trade,  
A Coll: once though now have got a fall,  
My actions are rechoded good and bad,  
Which will appears in public to you all.  
And in the lines you plainly there might read,  
A apprentice boy in London Murdered.   

I Coll. Desbrough formerly a Lord,  
Which Title seemed to me most unfit;  
Created by the Devil and the Sword,  
And in high courts of Justice I did sit,  
Nor doth my bloody acts make me despair  
For in the Gallows I do claim my share.   
FINIS.