American Scholar, January 1st, 2002
In 1654, when Oliver Cromwell was Lord Protector of England, some of the followers of the exiled Charles II issued "a proclamation in the
King's name offering five hundred pounds, knighthood, and a colonel's commission, to anyone who succeeded in killing `a certain mechanic fellow' called Oliver Cromwell, `by pistol, sword or poison.'" The Pretender did not entirely discourage them, insisting only that such a killing should be part of a general royalist rising and "not an isolated act."
What I find interesting is not the Pretender's hesitation but the peculiarly English and pejorative sens...
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