the "engagement," a promise of fidelity to the commonwealth without king or
house of lords. As long as it was confined to those who held office under
the government, it remained a mere question of choice; but when it was
exacted from all Englishmen above seventeen years of age, under the penalty
of incapacity to maintain an action in any court of law, it became to
numbers a matter of necessity, and served rather to irritate than
to produce security.[2] A more efficient measure was the permanent
establishment of a high court of justice to inquire into offences against
the state, to which was added the organization of a system of espionage by
Captain Bishop, under the direction of Scot, a member of the council. The
friends of monarchy, encouraged by the clamour of the Levellers and the
professions of the Scots, had begun to hold meetings,

[Footnote 1: Journals, 1651, Dec. 23; 1652, Jan. 15, 20, 30. Whitelock,
520. State Trials, v. 407-415.]

[Footnote 2: Leicester's Journal, 97-101.]

sometimes under the pretence of religious worship, sometimes under that of
country amusements: in a short time they divided the kingdom into districts
called associations, in each of which it was supposed that a certain
number of armed men might be raised; and blank commissions with the royal
signature were obtained, to be used in appointing colonels, captains, and
lieutenants, for the command of these forces. Then followed an active
correspondence both with Charles soon after his arrival in Scotland, and
with the earl of Newcastle, the Lord Hopton, and a council of exiles; first
at Utrecht, and afterwards at the Hague. By the plan ultimately adopted, it
was proposed that Charles himself or Massey, leaving a sufficient force
to occupy the English army in Scotland, should, with a strong corps of
Cavalry, cross[a] the borders between the kingdoms; that at the same time
the royalists in the several associations should rise in arms, and that
the exiles in Holland, with five thousand English and German adventurers,
should land in Kent, surprise Dover, and hasten to join their Presbyterian
associates, in the capital.[1] But, to arrange and insure the co-operation
of all the parties concerned required the employment of numerous agents, of
whom, if several were actuated by principle, many were of doubtful faith
and desperate fortunes. Some of these betrayed their trust; some undertook
to serve both parties, and deceived each; and it is a curious