the said Joyce. All owing to Fawley Park, thinks Joyce and prints; so that my Lord Protector, if this Park be the place, is very wise not to meddle or proceed therein.' And so we leave it.

LETTER CXCIII.

MONK, in these summer months, has a desultory kind of Rebellion in the Highlands, Glencairn's or Middleton's Rebellion, to deal with; and is vigorously coercing and strangling it. Colonel Alured, an able officer, but given to Anabaptist notions, has been sent into Ulster to bring over certain forces to assist Monk. His loose tongue, we find, has disclosed designs or dispositions in him which seem questionable. The Lord Protector sees good to revoke his Commission to Alured, and order him up to Town.

To the Lord Fleetwood, Lord Deputy of Ireland:

These.'

SIR,

'Whitehall,' 16th May, 1654.

By the Letter I received from you, and by the information of the Captain you sent to me, I am sufficiently satisfied of the evil intentions of Colonel Alured; and by some other considerations amongst ourselves, tending to the making up a just suspicion,-by the advice of friends here, I do revoke Colonel Alured from that Employment.

Wherefore I desire you to send for him to return to you to Dublin; and that you cause him to deliver up the Instructions and Authorities into your hands, which

he hath in reference to that Business; as also such moneys and accounts concerning the same,-according to the Letter, herein enclosed, directed to him, which I entreat you to deliver when he comes to you.

I desire 'you' also, to the end the Service may not be neglected, nor for one day stand, it being of so great concernment, To employ some able Officer to assist in Colonel Alured's room, until the men be shipped off for their design. We purpose also, God willing, to send one very speedily who, we trust, shall meet them at the place, to command in chief. As for provision of victual and other necessaries, we shall hasten them away; desiring that these Forces may by no means stay in Ireland; because we purpose they shall meet their provision in the place they are designed 'for.'

If any farther discovery be with you about any other passages on Colonel Alured's part, I pray examine them, and speed them to us; and send Colonel Alured over hither with the first opportunity. Not having more upon this subject at present,

I rest,

Your loving father,

OLIVER P.

P.S.' I desire you that the Officer, whom you appoint to assist the shipping of the Forces, may have the money in Colonel Alured's hands, for carrying on the Service; and also that he may leave what remains at Carrickfergus for the Commander-in-chief, who shall call for it there.*

*Thurloe, ii. 285.

This is the Enclosure, above spoken of:

SIR,

LETTER CXCIV.

'To Colonel Alured: These.'

16th May, 1654.

6

I desire you to deliver up into the hands of Lieutenant-General Fleetwood such Authorities and Instructions as you had for the prosecution of the Business of the Highlands in Scotland; and that' you forthwith repair to me to London; the reason whereof you shall know when you come hither, which I would have you do with all speed. I would have you also give an account to the Lieutenant-General, before you come away, how far you have proceeded in this Service, and what money you have in your hands, which you are to leave with him.

I rest,

Your loving friend,
OLIVER P.*

This Colonel Alured is one of several Yorkshire Alureds somewhat conspicuous in these wars; whom we take to be Nephews or Sons of the valuable Mr. Alured or Ald'red who wrote to old Mr. Chamberlain,'-in the last generation, one morning, during the Parliament of 1628, when certain honourable Gentlemen held their Speaker down, -a Letter which we thankfully read.1 One of them, John, was Member in this Long Parliament; a Colonel too, and King's Judge; who is now dead. Here is another, Colonel Matthew Alured, a dis1 Vol. i. p. 85 et seq.

* Thurloe, ii. 286.

tinguished soldier and republican; who is not dead; but whose

career of usefulness is here ended. Repairing forthwith to London,' to the vigilant Lord Protector, he gives what account he can of himself; none that will hold water, I perceive; lingers long under a kind of arrest at the Mews' or elsewhere; soliciting either freedom and renewed favour, or a fair trial and punishment; gets at length committal to the Tower, trial by Court Martial,—dismissal from the service. A fate like that of several others in a similar case to his.-Poor Alured! But what could be done with him? He had Republican Anabaptist notions; he had discontents, enthusiasms, which might even ripen into tendencies to correspond with Charles Stuart. Who knows if putting him in a stone waistcoat, and general strait-waistcoat of a mild form, was not the mercifullest course that could be taken with him?

He must stand here as the representative to us of one of the fatallest elements in the new Lord Protector's position: the Republican discontents and tendencies to plot, fermenting in his own Army. Of which we shall perhaps find elsewhere room to say another word. Republican Overton, Milton's friend, whom we have known at Hull and elsewhere; Okey, the fierce dragoon Colonel and zealous Anabaptist; Alured, whom we see here; Ludlow, sitting sulky in Ireland: all these are already summoned up, or about being summoned, to give account of themselves. Honourable, brave and faithful men : it is, as Oliver often says, the saddest thought of his heart that he must have old friends like them for enemies! But he cannot help it; they will have it so. They must go their way, he his.

Much need of vigilance in this Protector! Directly on the back of these Republican commotions, come out Royalist. 1 Whitlocke, pp. 499, 510; Thurloe, ii. 294, 313, 414; Burton's Diary (London, 1828), iii. 46; Commons Journals, vii. 678.

ones; with which however the Protector is less straitened to deal. Lord Deputy Fleetwood has not yet received his Letter at Dublin, when here in London emerges a Royalist Plot; the first of any gravity; known in the old Books and State-Trials as Vowel and Gerard's Plot, or Somerset Fox's Plot. Plot for assassinating the Protector, as usual. Easy to do it, as he goes to Hampton Court on a Saturday,-Saturday the 20th of May, for example. Provide thirty stout men; and do it then. Gerard, a young Royalist Gentleman, connected with Royalist Colonels afterwards Earls of Macclesfield, he will provide Five-and-twenty; some Major Henshaw, Colonel Finch, or I know not who, shall bring the other Five. Vowel a Schoolmaster at Islington, who taught many young gentlemen,' strong for Church and King, cannot act in the way of shooting; busies himself consulting, and providing arms. ingsley the Butcher in Smithfield,' he, aided by Vowel, could easily seize the Troopers' horses grazing in Islington fields;' while others of us unawares fall upon the soldiers at the Mews? Easy then to proclaim King Charles in the City; after which Prince Rupert arriving with 'Ten-thousand Irish, English and French,' and all the Royalists rising, -the King should have his own again, and we were all made men; and Oliver once well killed, the Commonwealth itself were as good as dead! Saturday the 20th of May; then, say our Paris expresses, then! —

'Bill

Alas, in the very birthtime of the hour, five of the Conspirators are seized in their beds;' Gerard, Vowel, all the leaders are seized; Somerset Fox confesses for his life; whosoever is guilty can be seized: and the Plot is like water spilt upon the ground!1 A High Court of Justice must decide upon it; and with Gerard and Vowel it will probably go hard.

1 French Le Bas dismissed for his share in it: Appendix, No. 16.