" in honour to keep that fecret, which is already revealed by another; or poffible it "fhould ftill be a fecret, which is known to "one of the other fex ?-If you perfift to be "cruel to yourself for their fakes who deferve "it not, it will nevertheless be made appear, ere long, I fear, to your ruin. Sure

ly, if I had the happiness to wait on you, I "could move you to compaffionate both your"self and me, who, defperate as my cafe is,

am defirous to die with the honour of being "known to have declared the truth. You "have no reason to contend to hide what is already revealed-inconfiderately to throw away yourself, for the interest of others, to "whom you are lefs obliged than you are aware of."

This perfuafion feems to have had little effect. Portland fent (June 29) a letter to the Lords, to tell them, "that he is in cuftody, "as he conceives, without any charge; and

that, by what Mr. Waller hath threatened "him with fince he was imprisoned, he doth apprehend a very cruel, long, and ruinous "reftraint :-He therefore prays, that he may "not find the effects of Mr. Waller's threats,

by a long and clofe imprisonment; but may "be fpeedily brought to a legal trial, and "then he is confident the vanity and falfehood of thofe informations which have been given against him will appear."

In confequence of this letter, the Lords ordered Portland and Waller to be confronted; when the one repeated his charge, and the other his denial. The examination of the plot being continued (July 1), Thinn, ufher

of

of the house of Lords, depofed, that Mr. Waller having had a conference with the lord Portland in an upper room, lord Portland faid, when he came down, "Do me the "favour to tell my lord Northumberland, "that Mr. Waller has extremely preffed me "to fave my own life and his, by throwing "the blame upon the lord Conway and the "earl of Northumberland."

Waller, in his letter to Portland, tells him of the reasons, which he could urge with refiftless efficacy in a perfonal conference; but he over-rated his own oratory: his vehemence, whether of perfuafion or intreaty, was returned with contempt.

One of his arguments with Portland is, that the plot is already known to a woman. This woman was doubtlefs lady Aubigny, who, upon this occafion, was committed to cuftody; but who, in reality, when the delivered the commiffion, knew not what it was.

The parliament then proceeded against the confpirators, and committed their trial to a council of war. Tomkyns and Chaloner were hanged near their own doors. Tomkyns, when he came to die, faid it was a foolish bufinefs; and indeed there feems to have been no hope that it fhould efcape difcovery; for though never more than three met at a time, yet a design fo extenfive muft, by neceffity, be communicated to many, who could not expected to be all faithful, and all prudent. Chaloner was was attended at this execution by Hugh Peters.

The earl of Northumberland being too great for profecution, was only once examined before the Lords. The earl of Portland and

lord Conway, perfisting to deny the charge, and no teftimony but Waller's yet appearing. against them, were, after a long imprisonment, admitted to bail. Haffel, the king's meffenger, who carried the letters to Oxford, died the night before his trial. Hampden

was kept in prifon to the end of his life. They whofe names were inferted in the commiffion of array were not capitally punished, as it could not be proved that they had confented to their own nomination; but they were confidered as malignants, and their estates were feized.

"Waller, though confeffedly," fays Clarendon," the moft guilty, with incredible "diffimulation affected fuch a remorfe of con"science, that his trial was put off, out of "Chriftian compaffion, till he might recover "his understanding." What use he made of this interval, with what liberality and fuccefs he distributed flattery and money, and how, when he was brought (July 4) before the house, he confeffed and lamented, and fubmitted and implored, may be read in the Hif tory of the Rebellion, (B. vii.) The speech, to which Clarendon afcribes the prefervation of his dear-bought life, is inferted in his works. The great hiftorian, however, feems to have mistaken in relating that he prevailed in the principal part of his fupplication, not to be tried by a Council of War; for, according to Whitlock, he was by expulfion from the house abandoned to the tribunal which he so much dreaded, and being tried and condemned, was reprieved by Effex; but after a year's imprifonment, in which time refentment grew lefs

acrimo

acrimonious, paying a fine of ten thousand pounds, he was permitted to recollect himself in another country.

Of his behaviour in this part of his life, it is not necessary to direct the reader's opinion. "Let us not," fays his last ingenious biographer, " condemn him with untempered fe

verity, because he was not a prodigy which "the world hath seldom seen, because his cha"racter included not the poet, the orator, " and the hero."

For the place of his exile he chose France, and ftaid fome time at Roan, where his daughter Margaret was born, who was afterwards his favourite, and his amanuenfis. He then removed to Paris, where he lived with great fplendour and hofpitality; and from time to time amused himself with poetry, in which he fometimes fpeaks of the rebels, and their ufurpation, in the natural language of an honest man.

At laft it became neceffary, for his support, to fell his wife's jewels; and being reduced, as he faid, at last to the rump-jewel, he folicited from Cromwel permiffion to return, and obtained it by the intereft of colonel Scroop, to whom his fifter was married. Upon the remains of a fortune, which the danger of his life had very much diminished, he lived at Hillburn, a house built by himself, very near to Beconsfield, where his mother refided. His mother, though related to Cromwel and Hampden, was zealous for the royal cause, and when Cromwel vifited her used to reproach him; he, in return, would throw a napkin at her, and fay he would not dispute

with his aunt; but finding in time that the acted for the king, as well as talked, he made her a prisoner to her own daughter, in her own house. If he would do any thing, he could not do lefs.

Cromwel, now protector, received Waller, as his kinfman, to familiar converfation. Waller, as he used to relate, found him fufficiently verfed in ancient hiftory; and when any of his enthufiaftick friends came to advife or confult him, could fometimes overhear him difcourfing in the cant of the times, but, when he returned, he would fay, "Cousin "Waller, I must talk to thefe men in their "own way;" and resumed the common stile of converfation.

He repaid the Protector for his favours (1654), by the famous panegyrick, which has been always confidered as the first of his poetical productions. His choice of encomiaftick topicks is very judicious; for he confiders Cromwel in his exaltation, without enquiring how he attained it; there is confequently no mention of the rebel or the regicide. All the former part of his hero's life is veiled with shades, and nothing is brought to view but the chief, the governor, the defender of England's honour, and the enlarger of her dominion. The act of violence by which he obtained the fupreme power is lightly treated, and decently juftified. It was certainly to be defired that the deteftable band fhould be diffolved, which had deftroyed the church, murdered the king, and filled the nation with tumult and oppreflion; yet Cromwel had not the right of diffolving them, for all that he

had