Page:Cassell's Illustrated History of England vol 3.djvu/370

356 and he believed that the wrath of God would prosecute such a man to his grave, if not to hell.

But all argument was lost on that fiery section. Scott and Haselrig continued their assaults on the whole frame of government more vehemently than ever; and on the 4th of February, fifteen days from the meeting of parliament, amid a confused bickering of Scott and Haselrig, with the wearied house, arrived the usher of the black rod to summon the members to the other house, which he called boldly, the house of lords. Haselrig, in the midst of his harangue, was reminded of the presence of the black rod. "What care I for the black rod?" he exclaimed, but he was compelled to obey.

The protector expressed the intensity of his disappointment that the very men who had importuned him to assume the burden of this government, and even to the title of king, should now, instead of attending to the urgent business of the nation, endeavour violently to destroy that government, and throw everything into chaos. He observed, "I can say in the presence of God, in comparison with whom we are but like poor creeping ants upon the earth, I would have been glad to have lived under a wood side, to have kept a flock of sheep rather than have undertaken such a government as this. But undertaking it by the advice and petition of you, I did look that you, who had offered it unto me, should make it good." He added, "And if this be the end of your sitting, and this be your carriage, I think it high time to put an end to your sitting; and I do dissolve this parliament." And thus closed the last parliament of Cromwell, after a session of a fortnight.

Having dismissed his parliament, Cromwell had to take summary measures with the host of conspirators which his refractory parliaments had only tended to encourage. Since the "Killing no Murder" of Sexby, there were members who were by no means careful to conceal that they loved these doctrines, and persuaded the discontented that to kill Cromwell was to cure all the evils of the nations. The royalists on their part, who had always advocates and practisers of assassination, were more than ever on the alert. On the commencement of the year 1658, the plan of an invasion was completed. The king of Spain furnished one hundred and fifty thousand crowns towards fitting it out: arms, ammunition, and transports were purchased in Holland, and the port of Ostend was to be the place of embarkation. The greatest drawback to the hopes of the royalists were the dissipated and debauched habits of the king. Ormond, writing to Hyde, observed that he feared Charles's immoderate delight in empty, effeminate, and vulgar conversations was become an irresistible part of his nature, and would never suffer him to animate his own designs and the actions of others with that spirit which was necessary for his quality, and much more for his fortunes. Yet this was the man on whom their hopes of the restoration of monarchy was built. Ormond and O'Neil ventured to England in disguise, in order to ascertain what were really the resources and the spirit of the royalists in the country. He there had private communication with all parties—with the earls of Manchester and Denbigh, with Rossiter and Sir William Waller, as presbyterians opposed to Cromwell and the independents; with Saye and Sele and others, who were willing that the king should return on his signing the same articles that his father had offered in the Isle of Wight; and with such of the fanatic levellers as held the opinions of Sexby. But he found little that was encouraging amongst any of them. If we are to believe Clarendon, ho was betrayed by one of those in whom he most trusted, Sir Richard Waller, who was high in the confidence of Charles, but was at the same time a paid spy of Cromwell's. It is certain that one day in March the protector said to lord Broghill "An old friend of yours is in town, the duke of Ormond, now lodged in Dury Lane, at the papist surgeon's there. You had better tell him to be gone." Broghill found that this was the case, and gave Ormond the necessary hint, who hurried back to Bruges, and assured Charles and his court that Cromwell had many enemies, but there was at present no chance of a successful invasion.

But if Cromwell was disposed to allow Ormond to escape, he was compelled to make an example of some other of the royalist agitators. On the 12th of March the protector sent for the lord mayor and aldermen to Whitehall, informed them that the duke of Ormond had been lurking in the city to excite rebellion, and that it was necessary to take strict measures for putting down the seditious of all sorts. At the same time he ordered the fleet to sweep the coasts of the Netherlands, which drove in there two fleets intended for the royalist expedition, and blockaded Ostend. He then determined to bring to justice some of the most incorrigible agitators. Sir Henry Slingsby, who had been confined in Hull ever since the outbreak of Penruddock, had not even there ceased his active resistance, employing himself to corrupt the officers of the garrison, who, being instructed by the governor, appeared to listen to his views, so that ere long he was emboldened to offer them commissions from Charles Stuart. Another person arrested was Dr. Hewet, an episcopalian clergymen, who preached at St. Gregory's, near St. Paul's, and was a most indefatigable advocate of a royal invasion. There were numbers of the royalist apprentices, and others in the city, who were not patient enough to wait for the invasion; they resolved to rise on the 15th of May, fire the houses near the Tower, and by sound of drum proclaim the king. The protector told Thurloe that "it was not fit that there should be a plot of this kind every winter," and Thurloe had made himself thoroughly aware of all their proceedings. As the time approached, the ringleaders were seized at the Mermaid, in Cheapside, a high court of justice was appointed according to act of parliament, and Slingsby, Hewet, and the city incendiaries were tried. There was ample proof of their guilt. Hewet denied the authority of the court and refused to plead, but he was all the same condemned with Slingsby and six of the city traitors to death.

There were strenuous endeavours to save the lives of Slingsby and Hewet in the protector's own family. Slingsby was the uncle of lord Falconberg, who had lately married one of Cromwell's daughters, and Hewet was said to be a great favourite of lady Claypole, Cromwell's favourite daughter, who interceded for him. The story of lady Claypole's grief for the death of Hewet cannot, however, be true, for, only four days after his death, she wrote to her