Whenever men meet in a sheltered place to talk and drink fermented liquids, whenever there is a respite from toil and a handful of people with time to converse, then ideas are born and husbanded.
And so it was that in the spring of 1649 the men who had fought for Cromwell against the king found themselves unpaid, and the men who had fought so bravely to bring down the king now saw that new aristocrats would rule as the king had done.
And throughout Cromwell's army a rebellion arose against both Cromwell and the king and talk grew hot among the young soldiers. And in the taverns and on the street corners ideas broke out and traveled far. All persons to vote! All persons to be free to run for Parliament! No more inheritance of money or title! All persons to be free from matrimony!
And they wore a sea green ribbon and they numbered in their thousands. They started a march of like minded regiments and Cromwell ordered ``Stop them in their tracks.''
But hopes for a better world were in the air. The rebel soldiers were welcome in the houses and workshops of the ordinary people and the sea green ribbons fluttered everywhere and milkmaids and barmaids tied them in their hair.
``Stop them now,'' Cromwell ordered, ``Stop them before it is too late.''
And troops loyal to Cromwell attacked them wherever they were found and they took out the ringleaders and shot them dead on summer mornings.
And the rebels looked at the power they had helped create and in cold reality they saw the specter of the centuries to come and they took off their sea green ribbons.
But when people rest from their work, they still speak their dreams into the ears of willing listeners in the shade of summer trees or the flickering winter firelight.