Allen, who, with Sexby and another agitator, in 1647 presented a remarkable petition from the army to the Long Parliament, now become adjutant-general, was arrested at his father-in-law's house, in Devonshire, at the end of January, on a charge of plotting disturbances in Ireland, and exciting discontent about Bristol and in Devon. Allen was a zealous anabaptist, and the excitement amongst them and other army republicans was great and extensive. Pamphlets were published, letters and agitator's passed from one regiment to another, and a general rising was planned, with the seizure of Edinburgh Castle, Hull, Portsmouth, and other strong places. Cromwell was to be surprised and put to death. Colonel Wildman, one of these fanatics, who had been ejected from parliament by refusing to sign the recognition, was taken on the 12th of February at Exton, near Marlborough, in Wilts, by a party of horse, as he was in his furnished lodgings upstairs, leaning on his elbows, and in the act, with the door open, of dictating to his clerk, "A Declaration of the free and well affected people of England, now in arms against the tyrant Oliver Cromwell." He was secured in Chepstow Castle, and his correspondents, Harrison, lord Grey of Groby, and others, were secured in the Tower. Colonel Sexby for the time escaped.
About the same time a royalist plot was also in progress. Charles Stuart, who had removed from Paris to Cologne—the French government not wishing to give offence to Cromwell—had concocted a plot with Hyde, his chancellor, to raise the royalists in various quarters at once, fancying that as Cromwell had given so much offence to both people and parliament, there was great hope of success. Charles went to Middleburg, on the coast of Holland, to be ready at a call, and Hyde was extremely confident. In Yorkshire there was a partial outbreak under lord Mauleverer and Sir Henry Kingsby, which was speedily quelled, and Kingsby seized and imprisoned in Hull. This abortive attempt was under the management of lord Wilmot, now earl of Rochester, who was glad to make his escape. Another branch of the plot, under the management of Sir Joseph Wagstaff, who came over with Rochester, fared no better. Wagstaff attempted to surprise Winchester on the 7th of March, during the assizes. Penruddock, Grove, and Jones, royalist officers, were associated with him, and about two hundred others entered Salisbury about five o'clock on the morning of the 11th, posted themselves in the market place, liberated the prisoners from the gaol, and surprised the sheriff and two judges in their beds. Wagstaff proposed to hang the judges, but Penruddock and the rest refused to allow it; he then ordered the high sheriff to proclaim Charles Stuart, but neither he nor the crier would do it, though menaced with the gallows. Hearing that captain Unton Crook was after them with a troop of horse, and seeing no chance of a rising, they quitted the town about three o'clock, and marched through Dorsetshire into Devonshire. At Southampton captain Crook came up with them, and speedily made himself master of fifty of the insurgents, including Penruddock, Grove, and Jones—Wagstaff escaped. They had expected a body of conspirators from Hampshire to join them at Salisbury, and these were actually on their way when they heard of the retreat of Wagstaff's body, and immediately dispersed. Similarly feeble outbreaks took place in the counties of Northumberland, Nottingham, Shropshire, and Montgomery. Penruddock, Grove, and Jones, were beheaded at Exeter, and about fifteen others suffered there and at Salisbury; the rest of the deluded prisoners were sold to Barbadoes. Charles returned crest-fallen to Cologne, and Hyde, convinced that his plans had been betrayed, attributed the treason to Manning, whom, having secured, they had shot in the following winter, in the territory of the duke of Neuburg.
To prevent more of these outbreaks, Cromwell planned to divide the whole country into military districts, over each of which he placed an officer, who was to act chiefly with the militia, and not with the levelling regulars. These officers he created major-generals, beginning first with Desborough in the south-wast, and, finally, before the year was out, he had distributed the other major-generals. Fleetwood, Skippon, Whalley, Kelsey, Goffe, Berry, Butler, Wortley, and Barkstead, each to their district, who effectually preserved the peace of the nation. During the spring also, undaunted by these disturbances, Cromwell progressed with his internal reforms, and with the greatest; of all, the reform of chancery. This was no easy matter. The lawyers were as turbulent as the anabaptists in the army. Two of the commissioners of the great seal, Whitelock and Widdringtou, refused to enforce the reform, and were obliged to resign. Lisle and Finnes, the other commissioners, dared to carry out the change. Old Lenthall, the speaker, now master of the rolls, protested that he would be hanged at the Rolls gate before he would obey; but he saw fit to alter his mind, and the protector, so far from bearing any ill-will to the two conscientious commissioners, Whitelock and Widdrington, soon after made them commissioners of the treasury.
We may now look back a little, to observe what Cromwell had been doing beyond the shores of the kingdom. We have seen that almost all the nations of Europe sent embassies to congratulate him on his elevation to the protectorate. The vigour of his will soon made them more anxious to stand on good terms with him. He soon made peace with Sweden as a protestant country, and from a natural sympathy with the protestant fame of the great Gustavus. He concluded peace also with Holland, but with France and Spain there were more difficulties. France had, both under Richelieu and Mazarin, lent continued aid and refuge to the royalist cause against the reformers. The queen, whom the republicans had chased from the throne, was a princess of France, and was living there with numbers of the royalists about her. Charles, the heir to the throne of England, was pensioned by France, and maintains a sort of court in Paris, whence continual disturbances and alarms were coming. It is true, the French court had never been very munificent to the exiled queen of England and her family. Henrietta was found by cardinal Retz without fire, and almost without food, and Charles and his countrymen so miserably poor, that Clarendon, in June, 1653, wrote, "I do not know that any man is yet dead for want of bread, which I really wonder at. I am sure the king owes all that he has eaten since April, and I am not acquainted with one servant who hath a pistole in his pocket.
