tor's friend, in a tone of utter despair.[33] And who could set
against the King a stream of systematic false encouragement, sufficient
to dispel his just despair, except Cromwell, who had all the secret
agents at home and abroad at his command? or who would undertake so
difficult a task as the creation of such an elaborate scheme of
deception, but one who was anxious that the outbreak should take place?
And we know that such was his wish.

In every way this is apparent. Even though no actual assistance be
given, still complete foreknowledge of a coming mischief, unfollowed by
corresponding precautions, implies a sanction. And this form of sanction
Cromwell gave to the Insurrection. In a tone of triumphant cunning he
assured his Parliament, during the ensuing year, that he had possessed
'full intelligence of' the conspiracy; though, with characteristic
craft, he concealed the most effectual informant 'of these things,' the
clerk who wrote out the despatches in the King's closet; and poor
Manning, 'as he was dead,' was credited with the discovery; although his
term of espial was not commenced soon enough to supply that 'full
intelligence,' of which his employer boasted.[34]

Cromwell could even have informed his corps of informers, of the course
that the coming movement would pursue. Two months before they began to
reflect back to him an account of his own design, Cromwell's detection
office in Whitehall contained a report from a supposed Leveller, who had
passed from Essex to Cornwall, and then from Cornwall to Scotland, that
a rumour was afloat, that the republicans in the army who were 'resolved
to stand by their first principles, in opposition to the Government,'
had banded together, under noted leaders, and had chosen the very places
afterwards selected by the Royalists, namely, Salisbury Plain and
Marston Moor for the rendezvous where they might show their strength.
Other informers reported to Cromwell that the Royalists in London, and
in Northumberland, hoped, that if they appeared in arms, they would be
able to 'make use of a good part of the army;' and similar evidence
warned the Government that a man claiming to be a Royalist had been at
work, during February, journeying to and fro between Gloucestershire and
Wiltshire, tempting Royalists to join with him in an insurrection,
because 'the design was first put on foot by the Levellers, who were to
be aiding and assisting the Cavaliers.'[35]

This information re