Lives of the Poets | Page 7

certain destruction; it could be of use only when the forces should
appear. This was, however, an act preparatory to martial hostility.
Crispe would undoubtedly have put an end to the session of

Parliament, had his strength been equal to his zeal; and out of the
design of Crispe, which involved very little danger, and that of Waller,
which was an act purely civil, they compounded a horrid and dreadful
plot.
The discovery of Waller's design is variously related.
In "Clarendon's History" it is told, that a servant of Tomkyns, lurking
behind the hangings when his master was in conference with Waller,
heard enough to qualify him for an informer, and carried his
intelligence to Pym.
A manuscript, quoted in the "Life of Waller," relates, that "he was
betrayed by his sister Price, and her Presbyterian chaplain Mr. Goode,
who stole some of his papers; and if he had not strangely dreamed the
night before, that his sister had betrayed him, and thereupon burnt the

rest of his papers by the fire that was in his chimney, he had certainly
lost his life by it." The question cannot be decided. It is not
unreasonable to believe that the men in power, receiving intelligence
from the sister, would employ the servant of Tomkyns to listen at the
conference, that they might avoid an act so offensive as that of
destroying the brother by the sister's testimony.
The plot was published in the most terrific manner.
On the 31st of May (1643), at a solemn fast, when they were listening
to the sermon, a messenger entered the church, and communicated his
errand to Pym, who whispered it to others that were placed near him,
and then went with them out of the church, leaving the rest in solicitude
and amazement. They immediately sent guards to proper places, and
that night apprehended Tomkyns and Waller; having yet traced nothing
but that letters had been intercepted, from which it appears that the
Parliament and the city were soon to be delivered into the hands of the
cavaliers.
They perhaps yet knew little themselves, beyond some general and
indistinct notices. "But Waller," says Clarendon, "was so
confounded
with fear, that he confessed whatever he had heard, said, thought, or
seen; all that he knew of himself, and all that he suspected of others,
without concealing any person of what degree or quality soever, or any
discourse which he had ever upon any occasion entertained with them;
what such and such ladies of great honour, to whom, upon the credit of
his wit and great reputation, he had been admitted, had spoken to him
in their chambers upon the proceedings in the Houses, and how they
had encouraged him to oppose them; what correspondence and
intercourse they had with some Ministers of State at Oxford, and how
they had conveyed all intelligence thither." He accused the Earl of
Portland and Lord Conway as co-operating in the transaction; and
testified that the Earl of Northumberland had declared himself disposed
in favour of any attempt that might check the violence of the
Parliament, and reconcile them to the king.
He undoubtedly confessed much which they could never have


discovered, and perhaps somewhat which they would wish to have been
suppressed; for it is inconvenient in the conflict of factions, to have that
disaffection known which cannot safely be punished.
Tomkyns was seized on the same night with Waller, and appears
likewise to have partaken of his cowardice; for he gave notice of
Crispe's commission of array, of which Clarendon never knew how it
was discovered. Tomkyns had been sent with the token appointed, to
demand it from Lady Aubigny, and had buried it in his garden, where,
by his direction, it was dug up; and thus the rebels obtained, what
Clarendon confesses them to have had, the original copy.
It can raise no wonder that they formed one plot out of these two
designs, however remote from each other, when they saw the same
agent employed in both, and found the commission of array in the
hands of him who was employed in collecting the opinions and
affections of the people.
Of the plot, thus combined, they took care to make the most. They sent
Pym among the citizens, to tell them of their imminent danger and
happy escape; and inform them, that the design was, "to seize the Lord
Mayor and all the Committee of Militia, and would not spare one of
them." They drew up a vow and covenant, to be taken by every
member of either House, by which he declared his detestation of all
conspiracies against the Parliament, and his resolution to detect and
oppose them. They then appointed a day of thanksgiving for this
wonderful delivery; which shut out, says Clarendon, all doubts whether
there had been