Poetical Works of Edmund Waller and Sir John Denham | Page 5

lowest nor the
least in my favour"), gained over Waller, and suggested to him the
scheme of his famous plot. We do not think so little of our hero's
intellect, or so much of his heart, as to credit this story. Though not
aged, he was by far too old to be caught with such chaff. He knew, too,
before, Charles' private sentiments towards him, and we incline with
some of his biographers to suppose that these words of royalty were
simply the signal to Waller to fire the train which the king knew right
well had already been prepared.
Poets are in general poor politicians and miserable plotters. They
seldom, even in verse or fiction, manage a state plot well. Scott, at least,
has completely failed in his treatment of the Popish plot in "Peveril,"
and they always bungle it in reality. They are either too unsuspicious or
too scheming, too shallow or too profound. That mixture of
transparency and craft, of simplicity and subtlety, requisite to all deep
schemes, and which Poe (himself a confused compound of the genius,
the simpleton, and the scoundrel) has so admirably exemplified in the
"Purloined Letter," is not often competent to men of imagination and
impulse. Waller was not a very creative spirit; but here he was true to
his class, and failed like a very poet. He had a brother-in-law named
Tomkins, clerk of the Queen's Council, and possessed of much
influence in the city. Consulting together on national affairs, it struck
them simultaneously that energetic measures might yet save the court.
They saw, or thought they saw, a reaction in favour of the royal cause,
and they determined to try and unite the royalists together in a peaceful

but strong combination against the parliament. They appointed
confidential agents to make out, in the different parishes and wards,
lists of those persons who were or were not friendly to their cause; and
to secure secresy, they prohibited more than three of their party from
meeting in one place, and no individual was to reveal the design to
more than two others. Lord Conway, fresh from Ireland, joined the
confederacy, and probably the counsels of such an ardent soldier served
to modify the original purpose, and to give it a military colour.
Meanwhile, Sir Nicholas Crispe, a bolder spirit than Waller, had
organised a different scheme in favour of Charles. He had, when a
merchant in the city, procured a loan of £100,000 for the king; he had
then raised and taken the command of a regiment; he had obtained from
Charles a commission of array, which Lady Aubigny, ignorant of its
contents, was to deliver to a gentleman in London. Crispe's plan was
bold and comprehensive. He intended to remove the king's children to a
place of safety, to enlist soldiers, collect magazines, and raise monies
by contribution, to release the prisoners committed by the parliament,
to arrest some of the leading members in both Houses, to issue
declarations, and whenever the conspiracy was ripe, to raise flags at
Temple Bar, the Exchange, and other central spots.
It was impossible that two such plots could escape collision with each
other--or that either should be long concealed. On the 31st May 1643, a
fast-day, Pym is seated in St. Margaret's Church, hearing sermon. A
messenger enters and gives him a letter. He reads
hastily--communicates its intelligence in whispers to those beside him,
and hurries out. No time is lost. Pym and his party could not trifle now
though they would, and would not though they could. Waller and
Tomkins are seized that night in their houses, and overwhelmed with
fear, confess everything. It is suspected that Waller was betrayed by his
sister, Mrs. Price, who was married to a zealous parliamentarian. A
strange story is told, that one Goode, her chaplain, had stolen some of
his papers, and would have got a hold of them all, had not Waller,
having DREAMED that his sister was perfidious, risen and secured the
rest. Clarendon, on the other hand, says that the discovery was made by
a servant of Tomkins, who acted as a spy for the parliament. At all
events, they were found out, and, in their terror and pusillanimity, they
betrayed their associates. The Duke of Portland and Lord Conway were

instantly arrested. Lady Aubigny, too, was imprisoned, but contrived to
make her escape to the Hague. Even the Earl of Northumberland was
involved in the charges which now issued in a trembling torrent from
the lips of the detected conspirator, who confessed a great deal that
could not have been discovered, and offered to reveal the private
conversations of ladies of rank, and to betray all and sundry who were
in the slightest degree connected with the plot. Tomkins had somehow
got possession of