Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 51.djvu/41

 places of the insurgents (for further details see, p. 28 seqq.; Ferguson the Plotter, pp. 86 seqq.). At the second meeting at Shephard's it was announced that the preparations were incomplete, and the rising was again postponed. Hereupon Shaftesbury fled the country. His flight (28 Nov.), succeeded by his death (21 Jan. 1683), deprived the whigs of the only chief who could command the support of London; it also snapped the link between the ‘council of six’ (Monmouth, Essex, Howard, Russell, Hampden, and Sidney) and the assassination plotters. The two factions still carried on their designs separately, and Monmouth in February 1683 paid a visit to Chichester, where he was preached at in the cathedral on the subject of rebellion. But about this time Ferguson returned to London. The ‘council’ or ‘cabal,’ to which Grey, according to his own account (p. 43), was now admitted, resolved upon the simultaneous outbreak of three risings in England (London, Cheshire, and the south-west) and a fourth in Scotland. Monmouth and Russell insisted upon the issue of a declaration in conformity with their views rather than with the republican sympathies of Sidney and Essex, and it was agreed that on the outbreak of the insurrection in London Monmouth should at once start for Taunton to assume the command there. Lord Grey adds (pp. 61–2) that Monmouth privately assured him of his belief that the insurrection would lead to little bloodshed, and speedily end in an accommodation between king and parliament, and of his detestation of a proposal to murder the Duke of York. Monmouth knew of the assassination plot, and kept up relations with the plotters, but it cannot be known how far his conduct was the result of impotence or of a formed design to frustrate the scheme of assassination.

The king's unexpectedly early departure from Newmarket ruined the plot before it was ripe (March), and 1 June its ‘discovery’ began. A proclamation appeared 28 or 29 June offering a reward of 500l. for the apprehension of Monmouth, Grey, Armstrong, and Ferguson (, i. 263). A true bill for high treason was found against Monmouth 12 July (ib. p. 267), and a proclamation against the fugitives was issued in Scotland (ib. p. 270). Monmouth's actual proceedings are obscure. Report (ib. p. 279) asserted him to be at Cleves, where Grey was officiously negotiating for his entry into the service of the elector of Brandenburg (, pp. 69–70); his biographer, Roberts, who cites no authority, states that he retired to Lady Wentworth's seat at Toddington in Bedfordshire, and was then reported to have escaped to the continent from near Portsmouth (i. 148). He is said to have chivalrously offered to give himself up if he could thereby benefit Russell, who in the same spirit refused the offer (Life of Russell, ii. 25). Burnet (ii. 411) says that he was on the point of going beyond sea and engaging in the Spanish service when, 13 Oct., Halifax discovered his retreat, brought him a kindly message from the king, and with some difficulty persuaded him to write in return, craving the king's and the Duke of York's pardon, but protesting that all he had done had been to save his father. On 25 Oct. Charles II met Monmouth at Major Long's house in the city, and left him not unhopeful of mercy; at another interview on 4 Nov. he instructed Monmouth what to say to the Duke of York. Another letter, drafted like the former by Halifax, and couched in a tone of great humility towards the duke as well as the king, was accordingly signed by Monmouth on 15 Nov., and in a final interview at Secretary Jenkins's office on 24 Nov. Monmouth, in the presence of the Duke of York, revealed to the king all he knew concerning the conspiracy, naming those engaged in it, but denying all knowledge of the assassination project. He was then promised his pardon: ‘The king acted his part well, and I too; the Duke of York seemed not ill-pleased’ (, i. 152–62;, iii. 376–8; , Memoirs of Transactions before 1688, 1700; Life of James II, i. 742–743; cf. Hist. MSS. Comm. 7th Rep. App. p. 368; , pp. 286–7; , i. 292). On the next day Monmouth was brought before the council and discharged from custody; his first visit was to the Duke of York, who took him to the king and queen (Hist. MSS. Comm. Rep. p. 101). The former sent him a present of 6,000l. (, i. 293).

The king, however, ignored his promise to Monmouth (or what, ii. 411, states to have been such), announced his confession at the council, and even ordered the fact of it to be published in the ‘Gazette.’ To his great chagrin, Monmouth, whose pardon had now passed the great seal, was thus exposed to the imputation of having confirmed the evidence given at the trials of Russell and Sidney. The Duke of York still continuing urgent, the king, at Ormonde's advice, called upon Monmouth to write a letter acknowledging his ‘confession of the plot’ (, i. 413); he complied, but was so perturbed by what he had done, that on the following day he prevailed upon the king to return him his letter. At the same time the king banished him from the court ([] True Account, &c., 1685; cf. Hist. MSS.