whence,
besides a certain prospect of the same consequence, they had so much
reason to dread the severest vengeance for their past transgressions.

In concert with the king, a conspiracy was entered into by the royalists
throughout England, and a day of general rising appointed. Information
of this design was conveyed to Cromwell. The protector's administration
was extremely vigilant. Thurloe, his secretary, had spies every
where. Manning, who had access to the king's family, kept a regular
correspondence with him; and it was not difficult to obtain intelligence
of a confederacy so generally diffused, among a party who valued
themselves more on zeal and courage, than on secrecy and sobriety Many
of the royalists were thrown into prison. Others, on the approach of the
day, were terrified with the danger of the undertaking, and remained at
home. In one place alone the conspiracy broke into action. Penruddoc,
Groves, Jones, and other gentlemen of the west, entered Salisbury with
about two hundred horse, at the very time when the sheriff and judges
were holding the assizes. These they made prisoners; and they proclaimed
the king. Contrary to their expectations, they received no accession of
force; so prevalent was the terror of the established government. Having
in vain wandered about for some time, they were totally discouraged; and
one troop of horse was able at last to suppress them. The leaders of
the conspiracy, being taken prisoners, were capitally punished. The rest
were sold for slaves, and transported to Barbadoes.

The easy subduing of this insurrection, which, by the boldness of the
undertaking, struck at first a great terror into the nation, was a
singular felicity to the protector; who could not, without danger, have
brought together any considerable body of his mutinous army in order
to suppress it. The very insurrection itself he regarded as a fortunate
event; since it proved the reality of those conspiracies which his
enemies on every occasion represented as mere fictions, invented to
color his tyrannical severities. He resolved to keep no longer any
terms with the royalists, who, though they were not perhaps the most
implacable of his enemies, were those whom he could oppress under
the most plausible pretences, and who met with least countenance and
protection from his adherents. He issued an edict, with the consent
of his council, for exacting the tenth penny from that whole party; in
order, as he pretend