he was present at Naseby and Langport, and at the captures of Winchester and Basing and the siege of Oxford (Sprigge, Anglia Rediviva, ed. 1854, pp. 36, 140, 151, 264). At the storming of Basing Harrison slew ‘one Robinson, son to the doorkeeper of Blackfriars playhouse, and the marquis's major, with his own hands, as they were getting over the works’ (Mercurius Civicus, 9–16 Oct. 1645; Sprigge, p. 151). A story afterwards circulated among the royalists that Harrison had shot Robinson with a pistol when he had laid down his arms, saying, ‘Cursed is he that doeth the work of the Lord negligently’ (Wright, Historia Histrionica; Cibber, Apology, ed. Lowe, i. xxix). Richard Baxter, with whom Harrison became acquainted during his service in the new model, writes of him: ‘He would not dispute with me at all, but he would in good discourse very fluently pour out himself in the extolling of Free Grace, which was very savoury to those that had right principles, though he had some misunderstandings of Free Grace himself. He was a man of excellent natural parts for affection and oratory, but not well seen in the principles of his religion; of a sanguine complexion, naturally of such a vivacity, hilarity, and alacrity, as another man hath when he hath drunken a cup too much; but naturally also so far from humble thoughts of himself that it was his ruin.’ Baxter was standing by Harrison at Langport when the royalists began to run, and heard him ‘with a loud voice break forth into the praises of God with fluent expressions, as if he had been in rapture’ (Reliquiæ Baxterianæ, 1696, pp. 54, 57).
In 1646 Harrison entered parliament as member for Wendover (Names of Knights, Citizens, and Burgesses, &c., 1648, 4to). His military reputation was then so high that Lord Lisle, when appointed lord-lieutenant of Ireland, asked for Harrison to serve under him (25 Jan. 1647). He returned to England in May, and was thanked by the commons for his services (Commons' Journals, v. 63, 166). In the quarrel between the army and the parliament Harrison sided with the former; signed the letter of the officers to the city of 10 June 1647, and was one of those appointed by Fairfax to treat with the parliamentary commissioners (Rushworth, vi. 555, 603). Fairfax gave him the command of the regiment of horse which had been Colonel Sheffield's. In November Harrison declared his extreme political views by opposing further negotiations with the king. In a meeting of officers on 11 Nov. 1647, he spoke loudly against the legislative power of the House of Lords, and denounced Charles himself as a ‘man of blood,’ who should be called to an account (Clarke Papers).
During the second civil war Harrison served in the northern army under Lambert, and distinguished himself by his daring on 18 July 1648, when Langdale surprised Lambert's quarters at Appleby. With a few troopers he checked the enemy's advance, ‘and being more forward and bold than his men did second him; having hold himself of one of the enemy's horse colours he received three wounds’ (Rushworth, vii. 1201). A month later his regiment played a prominent part in the battle of Preston, but it is doubtful whether Harrison himself was present. In November he was actively negotiating with Lilburne a reconciliation between the army leaders and the levellers, and took part in drawing up the agreement of the people (Lilburne, The Legal, Fundamental Liberties of the People of England asserted, 1649, pp. 35–8).
Harrison was very zealous in bringing the king to trial. Under special instructions from Cromwell and Ireton, he escorted the king from Hurst Castle to London. Charles, who had been told that Harrison had offered to assassinate him, was attracted by his soldierly bearing, and told Herbert ‘that having some judgment in faces, if he had observed him so well before, he should not have that ill opinion of him’ (Herbert, Memoirs, ed. 1702, p. 140). Harrison assured the king that the report was not true; what he had really said was ‘that the law was equally obliging to great and small, and that justice had no respect of persons’ (ib. p. 142; Trials of the Regicides, p. 44). He was present at nearly every meeting of the high court of justice, and signed the death-warrant. To the last he always justified his action, and was convinced that it met with divine approbation (Trials of the Regicides, p. 50).
Harrison did not accompany Cromwell to Ireland, though in the prayer-meeting which took place previous to Cromwell's departure, he ‘expounded some places of scripture excellently well and pertinent to the occasion’ (Whitelocke, Memorials, ed. 1853, iii. 66). He was nominated to the council of state when that body was constituted in January 1649, but was not actually elected to it till 10 Feb. 1651 (Commons' Journals, vi. 532). In June 1650 Harrison was one of those entrusted by the council of state to persuade Fairfax to accept the command of the expedition to Scotland (Whitelocke, iii. 207). A letter which he addressed to Cromwell, on his undertaking that post, shows close intimacy with the future Protector (Ellis, Original Letters, ii. iii. 353). During Cromwell's absence Harrison was appointed to the
