Page:Cassell's Illustrated History of England vol 4.djvu/113

] very skilful in the government if they meant to take the conspirators; and, as the arrests were delayed till night, there was ample time for them to have all got off. But they still flattered themselves that, though some whisper of the design had reached the palace, the actual conspirators were unknown, and they were only the more bent on seizing some instant mode of accomplishing their object. One earlier scheme had been to attack the royal coach as it crossed Piccadilly from Hyde Park to the Green Park, close to where Apsley House now stands. This was again proposed, and the conspirators drank healths to king James, the queen, the prince of Wales, and Louis of France, and destruction to the usurper. Porter squeezed out an orange, and they drank "the squeezing of the rotten Orange."

That night the king's officers were upon them, and Charnock, Rookwood, and Bernardi were taken in their beds. The next day seventeen more were arrested, and three of the Blues also. Barclay had had more cunning than the rest; he had absconded and got safe to France. The lord mayor was sent for to Whitehall, and desired to put the city into a perfect state of readiness for action. A council was held; it was agreed to send for some regiments from Flanders in consequence of the preparations at Calais; the earl of Dorset was sent down to his lieutenancy of Sussex; Sidney, lord Romney, warden of the Cinque Ports, was also dispatched for the guard of the coast of Kent; and Russell hastened to assume the command of the fleet. On Monday, the 24th, the king went to the house of lords, sent for the commons, and announced to the assembled parliament the discovery of the plot and the arrest of a number of the traitors. The sensation was intense. The two houses united in an address of congratulation for the king's safety, with which they went in a body to Kensington, and the same day the commons passed two bills, one suspending the habeas corpus, and the other declaring that parliament should not be dissolved by the king's death in case any such conspiracy should succeed. Sir Rowland Gwyn moved that the house should enroll itself as an association for the defence of the king and country. The idea was instantly seized by Montague, who saw how immensely it would strengthen the whigs, and the deed was immediately drawn, and ordered to be ready for signature the next morning. In this the house bound itself to defend the king with their own lives against James and his adherents, and to avenge him on his murderers in case of such an assassination, and to maintain the order of succession as fixed by the bill of rights.

The next morning the members hurried in to sign the form of association; and, as some were not present, it was ordered that all who had not signed it within sixteen days, should be called upon to do so or formally to refuse. They resolved that any one who declared the association illegal should be held to be a promoter of the wicked designs of the late king James, and an enemy to the laws and liberties of the country. They prayed the King to banish by proclamation all papists to a distance of ten miles from the cities of London and Westminster, and to order the judges to put the laws in force throughout the country against Roman catholics and non-jurors.

The form of the association and the address of the two houses were immediately printed and published, along with a proclamation offering one thousand pounds reward for the discovery and apprehension of each and every of the conspirators, and one thousand pounds, with a free pardon, to each of the accomplices who should deliver himself up and reveal what he knew. The names of conspirators inserted in the proclamation were—the duke of Berwick, Sir George Barclay, major Lowick, captain Porter, captain Stowe, captain Walbank, captain Courtney, lieutenant Sherburne, Price, Blair, Denant, Chambers, Boise, George Higgins and his two brothers, Davis, Cardell, Goodman, Cranburn, Keyes, Pendergrast, Burley, Trevor, Sir George Maxwell, Durance, Knightley, Holmes, Sir William Parkyns, and Rookwood.

The effect of these documents was instantaneous and universal. All causes of complaint of William or his beloved Dutchmen, of the enormous expense of the war and consequent heavy taxation, were at once forgotten in the resentment against the dastardly crime of assassination and the idea of a French invasion. William was raised by one impulse to the height of popularity; James was sunk to the lowest depths of execration. The militia was called out over the whole country, and seamen came out in troops to man the navy. The rewards, too, for the apprehension of the murderous villains operated most effectually. The gates of London and of other towns to which it was suspected that they might have fled, were closed, and a diligent search was instituted; nor was there much ceremony or much resistance to the entrance of houses, and exploration of rooms, and cellars, and closets. Every means was taken for preventing the conspirators escaping by post-horses or by any public conveyance in disguise. One after another the miscreants were dragged from their hiding-places, or gave themselves up as king's evidence for the thousand pounds and free pardon. Harris, one of those who had been sent from Paris to support Barclay, was the first to surrender and make full confession, and several others followed his example. Amongst these was Porter, who had fled with Keyes in the direction of Epsom, was stopped by the country people at Leatherhead, and declared himself king's evidence. This privilege was not claimed or not allowed to Keyes. Knightley was discovered in the disguise of a fine lady, properly painted and patched; Sir John Friend, Ferguson—the old Monmouth rebel—Roger Lestrange, and others, were soon captured. Sir William Parkyns was sought at his house at Warwickshire, but instead of him a large deposit of arms and accoutrements for cavalry were found, and the people, in their rage and disappointment at missing him, pulled down the house stick and stone, and destroyed out-buildings and gardens. He was afterwards taken in a garret in the Temple. Two hackney-coachmen who had conveyed each a conspirator to his hiding-place, secured them, and obtained each his thousand pounds.

The confession and depositions of Porter before the council give a very vivid idea of the whole prosecution of the plot, and agrees remarkably with the narrative afterwards published by Barclay. He said that Charnock told him that Barclay hold a commission from king James, which Sir William Parkyns had read, and it was entirely in James's own hand; that it was for levying war upon the person of