ached Cromwell in ample time for action. A word from
him to his agents abroad, a hint to the editors of the News Letters, or
a proclamation, would have dispersed those mischievious rumours, and
would have reduced Charles to inaction. Although he knew that Charles
based his sole hope of success upon an Anabaptist revolt, and a mutiny
in the army, Cromwell did nothing of the kind. Not that he failed to
secure himself by some ostensible precautions. 'It having pleased God to
make some further notable discovery to Us of the Conspiracy, and the
particular Persons engaged therein,' Cromwell arrested some Royalists,
shortly before the outbreak, but, as we know on the best authority, he
touched none of those 'engaged therein.' He secured London: he moved
troops from Ireland to Liverpool, and may thereby have disconcerted the
Lancashire Cavaliers; but he did not forewarn the Customs House officers
at Dover, or guard that port; just as he, subsequently, somehow failed
to station soldiers near those obvious points of danger, Marston Moor
and Salisbury Plain.[36] 'Oliver, Protector,' evidently 'understood his
Protectorship moderately well, and what Plots and Hydra-Coils were
inseparable from it.'

Cromwell thus assisting us, we had before us the relative positions of
all engaged in the Insurrection, during the last weeks of February 1655.
Charles was on the Dutch coast awaiting a possible summons to England;
to that end he had despatched the expedition, composed of the Earl of
Rochester, Sir John Wagstaff, Major Armourer, Mr. O'Neale, and their
companions, about fourteen in number; and Cromwell was watching them,
and was preparing for their reception at Dover, not soldiers, but the
friendly assistance of his servant, Mr. Day, the Clerk of the Passage.
In true Cavalier fashion the Earl of Rochester and his comrades
approached our shores, with ostentatious contempt of danger. They came
not in a small party, dropping over one by one, selecting different and
out-of-the-way spots for landing, but almost in a body, in quick
succession, they alighted at Dover. That was the most public port they
could have chosen; and being courtier Cavaliers, long resident abroad,
they were, in dress and look, marked men, and most unfitted to play the
part they chose, of traders resident in France or Holland. Their
selection of Dover was not, however, so ill-advised as it seemed, for
they also reckoned on the help of Mr. Day, the Clerk of the Passage.

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