[Footnote 2:  Still Ormond says to Hyde, “I fear his immoderate delight in empty, effeminate, and vulgar conversations is become an irresistible part of his nature, and will never suffer him to animate his own designs, and others’ actions, with that spirit which is requisite for his quality, and much more to his fortune.”—­27, Jan. 7, 1658.  Clar. iii. 387.]

[Sidenote a:  A.D. 1658.  End of January.]

hastened to London.  There, continually changing his dress and lodgings, he contrived to elude the suspicion of the spies of government, and had opportunities of conversing with men of different parties; with the royalists, who sought the restoration of the ancient monarchy; with the Levellers, who were willing that the claims of the king and the subject should be adjusted in a free parliament; with the moderate Presbyterians, who, guided by the earls of Manchester and Denbigh, with Rossiter and Sir William Waller, offered to rely on the royal promises; and the more rigid among the same religionists, who, with the lords Say and Robarts at their head, demanded the confirmation of the articles to which the late king had assented in the Isle of Wight.  But from none could he procure any satisfactory assurances of support.  They were unable to perform what they had promised by their agents.  They had not the means, nor the courage, nor the abilities, necessary for the undertaking.  The majority refused to declare themselves, till Charles should have actually landed with a respectable force; and the most sanguine required a pledge that he would be ready to sail the moment he heard of their rising, because there was no probability of their being able, without foreign aid, to make head against the protector beyond the short space of a fortnight.[1]

In these conferences Ormond frequently came in contact with Sir Richard Willis, one of the sealed knot, and standing high in the confidence of Charles.[2]

[Footnote 1:  Carte’s Letters, ii. 118, 124, 130.  Clar. iii. 388, 392, 395.  Thurloe, i. 718.]

[Footnote 2:  The knot consisted of Willis, Colonel Russell, Sir William Compton, Edward Villiers, and Mr. Broderick, according to several letters in Clarendon; according to the duke of York, of the four first, Lord Belasyse, and Lord Loughborough.—­James, i. 370.]

Willis uniformly disapproved of the attempt.  The king’s enemies, he observed, were now ready to unsheath their swords against each other; but let the royal banner be once unfurled, and they would suspend their present quarrel, to combine their efforts against the common enemy.  Yet the author of this prudent advice was, if we may believe Clarendon, a traitor, though a traitor of a very singular description.  He is said to have contracted with Cromwell, in consideration of an annual stipend, to reveal to him the projects of the king and the royalists; but on condition that he should have no personal communication with the protector, that he should never be compelled to mention