Thomas Harrison replied in a tone serene and unmoved—
"I will not; come what may, I will not."
The Lord-Protector straightened his figure (which drooped a little in the shoulders of late), and then the blood slowly overspread his face.
"I shall not take this lightly," he said; "for my own dignity I may not take it lightly—I am the Governor of England. I have some authority."
"The brief carnal power of a thing of clay," replied Harrison, with an exalted smile. "Wherefore should I seek to please thee, who in a few years will be gone from this scene, leaving behind thy power and thy splendour? I listen to the voice of Him before whom thou and all the nations of the earth are less than a drop of water in the bucket; my thoughts are fixed, not on this dusty sojourn here, but on those azure eternities which God giveth to His servants. Therefore I will not obey thee in this matter, for my conscience is against it."
The Lord-Protector was silent a moment, then he spoke in a tone from which all friendliness and pleading had gone.
"Then if you will not recognize the Government, you must cease to serve it. I shall ask for your commission."
Major-General Harrison gently unfastened his sword thread and laid the plain weapon and the plain belt on a little table which stood near the Protector.
"There is my sword," he said, "which hath done some poor little service. Take it and let it rust."