and on the 9th of January, about six in the evening, entered Whitehall with his two accomplices; he unlocked the door of the chapel, deposited in a pew a basket filled with inflammable materials, and lighted a match, which, it was calculated, would burn six hours.  His intention, was that the fire should break out about midnight; but Took had already revealed the secret to Cromwell, and all three were apprehended as they closed the door of the chapel.  Took saved his life by the discovery, Cecil by the confession of all that he knew.  But Syndercombe had wisely concealed from them the names of his associates and the particulars of the plan.  They knew not that certain persons within the palace had undertaken to murder the protector during the confusion likely to be caused by the conflagration, and that such measures had been taken as to render his escape almost impossible.  Syndercombe was tried; the judges held that the title of protector was in law synonymous with that of king; and he was condemned[b] to suffer the penalties of high treason.  His obstinate silence defeated the anxiety of the protector to procure further information respecting

[Sidenote a:  A.D. 1657.  Jan. 9.] [Sidenote b:  A.D. 1657.  Feb. 9.]

the plot; and Syndercombe, whether he laid violent hands on himself, or was despatched by the order of government, was found dead[a] in his bed, a few hours before the time appointed for his execution.[1]

2.  The failure of this conspiracy would not have prevented the intended invasion by the royal army from Flanders, had not Charles been disappointed in his expectations from another quarter.  No reasoning, no entreaty, could quicken the characteristic slowness of the Spanish ministers.  Neither fleet nor money was ready; the expedition was postponed from month to month; the season passed away, and the design was deferred till the return of the long and darksome nights of winter.  But Sexby’s impatience refused to submit to these delays; his fierce and implacable spirit could not be satisfied without the life of the protector.  A tract had been recently printed in Holland, entitled “Killing no Murder,” which, from the powerful manner in which it was written, made a deeper impression on the public mind than any other literary production of the age.  After an address to

[Footnote 1:  See Thurloe, v. 774-777; vi. 7, 53; Merc.  Polit.  No. 345; Bates, Elen. 388; Clarendon Pap. iii. 324, 325, 327; Claren.  Hist. iii. 646; and the several authorities copied in the State Trials, v. 842-871.  The body was opened, and the surgeons declared that there existed no trace of poison in the stomach, but that the brain was inflamed and distended with blood in a greater degree than is usual in apoplexy, or any known disease.  The jury, by the direction of the lord chief justice, returned a verdict that “he, the said Miles Syndercombe, a certain poisoned powder through the nose of him, the said Miles, into the head of him, the said Miles, feloniously, wilfully, and of malice aforethought, did snuff and draw; by reason of which snuffing and drawing so as aforesaid, into the head of him, the said Miles, he the said Miles, himself did mortally poison,” &c.—­Ibid. 859.  The Levellers and royalists maintained that he was strangled by order of Cromwell.—­Clar. iii. 647.]