Major-General Harrison, the famous Republican, who, in the Little Parliament had opposed the tithe system, who had plunged deeply into the study of prophecy, had been for some time expecting the reign of the saints, and had been involved in the revolutionary schemes of the Fifth Monarchy men, was arraigned for having sat upon the trial of his "late Sovereign Lord King Charles I., of ever blessed memory," and for having signed and sealed the warrant for his execution.[161] He was found guilty, and condemned to die. With his political fanaticism there blended other feelings; and the propriety of his demeanour in prison was such, that the woman, who cleaned his cell, and kindled his fire, declared she could not conceive how he deserved to be there, for he was a man "full of God--there was nothing but God in his mouth--and his discourse and frame of heart would melt the hardest of their hearts."[162] He died expressing transports of religious joy. [Sidenote: THE REGICIDES.] Hugh Peters, the military Divine, who had beat up for recruits at country market crosses, and carried messages of victory from the Army to the Commons, was now condemned for stirring up the soldiery to demand the Monarch's execution, and for giving publicity to the Proclamation for the High Court of Justice. As he was going to execution, he replied to a person--who abused him as a regicide--"Friend, you do not well to trample upon a dying man, you are greatly mistaken. I had nothing to do with the death of the King." Peters, although coarse, vulgar, and violent, has been painted in darker colours than he deserves. It is certain that he approved of the execution of the King; but whether his complicity in the deed was legally proved is another question. That he was one of the masked headsman on the 30th of January, 1649, is an idle tale; and of the charges against his moral character no adequate proof has ever been adduced. Without any respect for his memory I wish to do him justice. He has been commonly represented by Royalists as an unprincipled and cruel villain, steeped in vice, and laden with crime. The facts of his history do not support that indictment; they rather show him to have been a sincere, misguided, and unhappy enthusiast.[163] Isaac Pennington--who presented to the Long Parliament in 1640 the famous "Root and Branch" Petition of the London citizens--was at this time also charged with compassing the Monarch's death. The Lord Chief Baron alluded to him in merciful terms, and although found guilty, his life was spared through the intercession of influential friends. He died a prisoner in the Tower, December the 17th, 1661. His son Isaac had embraced Quakerism; and a daughter of his wife, by a former husband, became the wife of William Penn. [Sidenote: 1660.]