when society was in a state of disorganization, and all constitutional modes of action were suspended. The secresy with which the projectors of the movement were compelled to carry on their preparations increased the danger. In order to ascertain their strength, they appointed persons on whom they could rely to make lists, in the different wards and parishes, of the inhabitants who were favourable or unfavourable to Parliament; and, as a measure of safety, they prohibited more than three of their friends from meeting in one place, and no individual was to communicate the design to more than two others. Lord Conway, who had just arrived from Ireland, ardent in the cause, joined in the confederation, and, being a soldier by profession, is supposed to have imparted something of a military character to its operations.

At the same time that this really peaceful combination was silently maturing its purposes, Sir Nicholas Crispe, a merchant, and furious loyalist, was engaged in promoting the same end by violent means. He had already procured a loan of 100,000l. for the King, raised a regiment at his own cost, and transmitted a commission of array from Oxford to London by the hands of Lady Aubigny, who was ignorant of the contents of the papers which she was entrusted to deliver to a gentleman in the city. Crispe, in fact, had organized an extensive conspiracy. The King's children were to be removed to a place of security; contributions were to be raised, soldiers enrolled, and magazines established; declarations were to be issued, announcing the objects in view; the prisoners committed by the Parliament were to be released, and the principal members of both houses, opposed to the King, were to be seized. Crispe was so confident of success, that he had colours in readiness to be raised at the Exchange, Temple Bar, and other public places.*

The inevitable consequence of two movements, however different in their nature, being thus carried on simultaneously

* For details, see Clarendon, May, Bio. Brit., and Forster's Life of Pym.

in the same interest, was that they should become confounded; and as the actors in each were committed to a common purpose, all were held to be equally guilty. Waller, being the most influential person implicated, and his complicity being considered all the more culpable as he had hitherto enjoyed the confidence of the Parliament, he was at once dealt with as the chief delinquent.

Information of the plot was conveyed to Pym on the 31st May, 1643, while he was at St. Margaret's church solemnizing a fast. In the midst of the worship, a messenger suddenly entered, and handed a letter to Pym; who hastily communicated the contents in whispers to his friends, and hurried out; the incident producing a profound sensation amongst the persons present. That night Waller and

Tomkins were arrested at their houses.

There are different accounts of the means by which the plans of the confederates were traced and detected. According to one account,* Waller was betrayed by his sister, Mrs. Price, whose chaplain, Goode, stole some of his papers, and might have secured them all, if Waller had not dreamt one night of his sister's treachery, and got up and burned what were left. According to Clarendon, the plot was discovered by a servant of Tomkins, who was employed by the Parliament as a spy. There is too much reason to believe that, through whatever channel the revelations may have been made, they came from a domestic quarter. All Waller's family, except his mother, were zealous parliamentarians. Two sisters were married to Price and Tomkins, and a third to Colonel Scroope, who afterwards obtained Cromwell's permission for Waller to return from exile, and who was himself hanged at the Restoration for signing the death warrant of the King; one of Waller's brothers served under Cromwell in Ireland; and another was a colonel in the army of the Parliament. Waller stood alone in his family in his allegiance to the King.

*A MS. written by a relative of Waller's, who lived in his house.

If Waller and Tomkins had acted with firmness, there might have been some difficulty in obtaining proofs of their guilt; but they were overcome by a paroxysm of terror, and declared themselves willing to confess not only everything they knew, but everything they suspected of others. They were ready to denounce their friends, in the pusillanimous hope of saving themselves. Waller gave up the names of the Duke of Portland and Lord Conway, who were immediately afterwards arrested, and their lands and goods seized; and implicated the Earl of Northumberland as being favourable to the design of checking the Parliament and reconciling them to the King. Tomkins confessed that he had received a commission of array from Lady Aubigny,* and that he had buried it in his garden: voluntarily furnishing the Parliament with a clue to the whole conspiracy, which they could never have obtained through any other means.

He

There is, perhaps, no example on record of such humiliating cowardice, under circumstances that made so urgent an appeal to the honour and fidelity of a gentleman, as that which was exhibited by Waller throughout, if Clarendon's narrative of the transaction is to be considered entitled to credit. volunteered to reveal to the Parliament the private conversations of ladies of rank, who had admitted him to their confidence on the credit of his wit and reputation; to expose their correspondence and intercourse with the King's friends; and to tell how they derived and conveyed intelligence. In plain terms, he offered to turn informer against all those who had reposed implicit trust in his integrity, expecting thereby to secure his own safety, which is said to have been promised to him by Pym. And this treachery was all the more despicable, because it was gratuitous and unnecessary; for the Parliament knew little or nothing definite of the plot, except the information acquired from these voluntary confessions. When Lord Portland, after having received a miserable

* In consequence of this confession Lady Aubigny was arrested; but effected her escape, and fled to the Hague.

letter from Waller, entreating him to acknowledge the truth of his statements, demanded to be confronted with him before the Lords, Waller solicited a private conference, for the purpose, as he alleged, of satisfying his lordship on the facts. When the conference was over, Lord Portland went to the usher of the house, and said, 'Do me the favour to tell my Lord Northumberland that Mr. Waller has extremely pressed me to save my own life and his, by throwing the blame on Lord Conway and the Earl of Northumberland.'* In only one instance Waller appears to have shown rectitude or manliness. Being pressed with respect to Selden, Pierpont, and Whitelocke, he exonerated them from all participation in the conspiracy.

Waller, Tomkins, Chaloner (the agent of Crispe), Alexander Hampden (Waller's cousin, to whom he addressed one of his poems in happier days), Hassel (the King's letter-carrier between Oxford and London), Blinkorne, and White were arraigned at Guildhall, before a Council of War. Waller succeeded, says Clarendon, in getting his trial put off, 'till he might recover his understanding,' by acting with incredible dissimulation a strange remorse of conscience. Hassel died the night before the trial. All the rest were sentenced. Tomkins and Chaloner were executed in front of their own houses; Alexander Hampden expired in prison: and White and Blinkorne were ultimately reprieved.

Waller, by obtaining the postponement of his trial till the immediate fury of prosecution had been abated through the sacrifice of its first victims, and by appealing from the military tribunal to the House of Commons, finally escaped. The speech he addressed to the house on this occasion was admirably adapted to propitiate the compassion and the prejudices of the assembly. He affected profound contrition, threw himself wholly on the mercy of his hearers, but artfully reminded them that their own rights would be compromised

* The Earl of Portland and Lord Conway denied the truth of Waller's statements; and, there being no other testimony against them, they were admitted to bail after a long imprisonment.

WALLER.

3

in his person if they allowed him to be tried by the soldiers. His submission was abject; but the flattery was adroit, and the premeditated eloquence full of point and brilliancy. 'In truth,' says Clarendon, he does as much owe the keeping his head to that oration, as Catiline did the loss of his to those of Tully.' It was not to his eloquence, however, he was entirely indebted for his safety. The Commons decided against his claim to be tried at their hands, and expelled him from the house. In the interval, he is said to have expended thirty thousand pounds in bribes. He was finally arraigned before a military tribunal, and condemned, but reprieved by Essex. At the end of a year his sentence was commuted to banishment for life, and a fine of ten thousand pounds.

Turning from these details, which cannot be dwelt upon without pain and regret, we now follow the course of the exiled poet on the continent, his fortune diminished, and his health broken by anxiety and suffering. After a short residence in Normandy, he made a tour through Italy and Switzerland with his friend Evelyn, and ultimately settled in Paris. By this time he had completely recovered his natural gaiety; and his house, which he maintained in great splendour, was frequented by the chief wits and courtiers of the French capital. At his liberal table, the only English table in Paris except that of Lord St. Albans, minister and favourite of the exiled Queen, the banished Royalists found a hospitable reception, as long as his resources lasted. His means were so much impaired that this profusion, which exhibited an extraordinary contrast to the prudence of his youth, ended at last in an extremity of distress. His personal estate, augmented by his first wife's fortune, is stated by Aubrey to have been worth 3000l. a year, raised by other authorities to 3500l. But he had been compelled, in order to discharge the fine of 10,000l., to sell off a property in Bedfordshire of 1000l. or 1300l. per annum; and to make still larger sacrifices to conciliate the favour of influential persons by costly gifts. His difficulties were increased by the growing demands of a numerous family. His daughter Margaret