y Londoners as he could to his side. He had
previously (16 March) caused a commission of array to be drawn, addressed
to Gardiner, who was still Recorder, and others, authorising them to raise
a force on his behalf in the city.(596) This commission he had retained at
Oxford until he could find an opportunity for conveying it safely to
London. It was now entrusted to Lady Daubeny to carry to London. She
succeeded in her mission and handed the document over to a city
linendraper named Chaloner, who, in his turn, transferred it to Tompkins,
a brother-in-law of Waller the poet, who was also implicated in the design
which on that account came to be known as "Waller's Plot." Tompkins
endeavoured to conceal it in a cellar, but it did not escape the prying
eyes of parliamentary searchers. Early in the morning of the 31st May
Tompkins was arrested, and in the course of time both he and Chaloner paid
the penalty of their rashness by being hanged in front of their own
houses, the one in Cornhill and the other in Holborn. Waller was also
taken and flung into prison.(597)

(M265)

Thursday, the 15th June, was appointed to be kept as a day of thanksgiving
for deliverance from the plot,(598) and on that day the new parliamentary
vow or covenant, binding those who took it to support the forces raised in
defence of parliament against those raised by the king, was generally
accepted in the city.

(M266)

In the meantime Essex had besieged and taken Reading (26 April), but his
troops became affected with disease, and he made no attempt to advance on
Oxford until June. Before his arrival Hampden had received a mortal wound
at Chalgrove Field (18 June). On the 5th July the royalist forces under
Hopton worsted the parliamentary army under Waller in the west, whilst a
similar success was achieved against Fairfax in the north (30 June). The
king had reason to be elated as he rode into Oxford (14 July) accompanied
by the queen, from whom he had been separated for fifteen months, amid the
shouts of men and the ringing of bells.

(M267) (M268)

Parliament and the City, on the other hand, had reason to be dejected. On
the 17th July Charles issued a proclamation for seizing all merchandise on
its way to London. The trade of the city became paralysed.(599) Nor was
this all. For some months past the citizens had been suffering from a
scarcity of coal. Ever since the appointment of the Earl of Newcastle as
governor of the town of Newcastle in