Life of Edward Earl of Clarendon, vol 2 | Page 5

traitor was now, as often in these Royalist
plottings, received into their full confidence, and through him a detailed
account of all their plans was sent to Thurloe. [Footnote: John Thurloe
was born in 1616, and became a lawyer. He obtained active
employment under the Parliament, and was Secretary to the
Parliamentary Commissioners at Uxbridge. He acted as Secretary to
Cromwell for secret correspondence, and amassed enormous
experience in the intricacies of foreign diplomacy, which afterwards

stood him in good stead when, after the Restoration, he wished to make
himself useful to the new Government, and thus escape the penalties
which his former political attachments would certainly have involved.
Until the Restoration was all but accomplished he gave useful help to
Richard Cromwell, but yet was able to ingratiate himself with the new
Ministers.] Hyde learned that Sir Richard Willis, [Footnote: Sir Richard
Willis had done good service to the royal cause in the war. As a close
adherent of Prince Rupert, he became, when Governor of Newark in
1645, involved in one of the many quarrels between the Civil
Commissioners and the army officers. Charles I. removed him from the
Governorship, but desired to do so without friction by providing him
with a post in his own escort. Willis's insolence in refusing this roused
the King's anger so far as to lead him to banish Willis from his presence.
Willis was a good soldier, rendered mutinous by the bad example of
Prince Rupert; but it is hard to account for his present treachery. As
Warburton, in his note on the History of the Rebellion (Bk. XVI., para.
31) says, "he could not think of starving for conscience' sake, though he
had courage enough to fight for it."] who had already played a double
game of treachery, was acting as he had acted before, when he betrayed
Ormonde's presence in London to Cromwell, and at the same time
enabled Ormonde to escape by telling him of Cromwell's knowledge.
Willis's betrayal gave the Parliamentary leaders time to collect forces
sufficient to meet all attacks; and when he had thus baulked the attempt,
Willis was ready to discover enough to prevent those whom he had
betrayed from falling into the trap. Messages were sent to delay the
rising, and in most cases they were in time to prevent outbreaks which
were fore-doomed to failure. Only Sir George Booth, in the seizure of
Chester, and Middleton, in the North Wales rising, actually carried out
what had been planned. A very brief campaign sufficed for Lambert to
crush the nascent rebellion. Booth and Lord Derby [Footnote: Son of
the Earl who played so noble a part in the war, and who was executed
after the battle of Worcester in 1651.] were prisoners in the hands of
Lambert; and Middleton was compelled to consent to the destruction of
his house, Chirk Castle. Once more a brief gleam of hope was
succeeded by more profound despair, and there was nothing more to be
done by Charles and the Duke of York than to return from the French
coast to Brussels. But there was no Cromwell to crush future attempts

by a policy of ruthless revenge. A few prisoners were taken; but the
time was past for trials and executions. Legal processes were beyond
the range of the sorry faction that stood for administration in England.
But scarcely had these abortive attempts been crushed before another
avenue of hope opened itself to Charles and his adherents. It was one
for which Hyde had no great liking, and from which he expected little
good result. But obviously it was not to be neglected. After a long,
barren, and destructive war, both France and Spain were eager for
peace. Neither was ready to make the first overtures, and neither would
confess an ardent desire for peace. But an opportunity occurred, now
that a wife had to be found for Louis XIV. The Infanta of Spain offered
a consort entirely suitable, and a marriage might be arranged with the
better augury if it should prove a method of bringing to an end a
mutually destructive war. Mazarin viewed the proposal with suspicion,
and was unwilling to conclude a peace when the success of French
arms seemed already secure. But the Queen-Mother of France ardently
desired the marriage, and mainly by her efforts Cardinal Mazarin and
Don Lewis de Haro were induced to treat. Most men thought that the
design was a vain one, fomented only in the enthusiasm of family ties.
But the desire for a cessation of a useless struggle operated more
powerfully than Mazarin was able to perceive; and that desire
overcame the delays and doubts of diplomatic action. The time and
place of meeting to arrange a treaty of peace were fixed; and there was
at least a fair