hley Cooper, and the other Anti-Cromwellian leaders in the late
Parliament. This, however, is less remarkable than that, with
information in Cromwell's possession that some of the members of the
Parliament, nominally Commonwealth's men, had actually commissions
from Charles II. and were enlisting persons under such commissions
for any possible insurrection whatever, he had contented himself with
announcing the fact in his Dissolution Speech and so merely
signifying to the culprits that their lives were in his hands.[1]

[Footnote 1: Ludlow, 599-600; Whitlocke, IV. 330; Godwin, IV.
502-503.]

The Royalist project and its ramifications were really very
formidable. A Spanish Army of about 8000 men, with Charles II. and
his refugees among them, _was_ gathered about Bruges, Brussels,
and Ostend, with vessels of transport provided; and the burst of a
great Royalist Insurrection at home, in Sussex, London, and
elsewhere, _was_ to coincide with the invasion from abroad. The
Duke of Ormond himself had come to London in disguise, to observe
matters and make preparations. He was in London for three weeks,
living in the house of a Roman Catholic surgeon in Drury Lane, till
Cromwell, who knew the fact, generously sent Lord Broghill to him
with a hint to be gone. This was early in March, some days after a
proclamation "commanding all Papists and other persons who have been
of the late King's party or his son's to depart out of the cities of
London and Westminster," and another proclamation forbidding such
persons living in the country to stir more than five miles from their
fixed places of abode. On the 12th of that month the Lord Mayor,
Aldermen, and Common Council of the City of London met his Highness
and the Army-officers by appointment at Whitehall, where his Highness
explained to them at length the nature of the crisis, informed them
particularly of the strength of the Flanders army of invasion,
Ormond's visit, &c., and solemnly committed to them the safety of the
City. The response of the City authorities was extremely loyal.[1]

[Footnote 1: Godwin, IV. 507-508; Carlyle, III. 353-354; _Merc.
Pol._, of March 11-18, 1657-8, quoted in _Cromwelliana_,
pp. 170-171. The Proclamation ordering Papists and other Royalists
out of London and Westminster, and that ordering such persons in the
country to keep near home, are both dated Feb. 25, 1657-8. There are
copies at the end of one of the volumes of the Council's minutes.]

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