the
secretary of Thurloe, who, to make his own peace, sent to the court at
Bruges some of the original communications in the writing of Willis. This
discovery astonished and perplexed the king. To make public the conduct of
the traitor was to provoke him to farther disclosures: to conceal it, was
to connive at the destruction of his friends, and the ruin of his own
prospects. He first instructed his correspondents to be reserved in their
communications with "the Knot;"[a] he then ordered Willis to meet him on
a certain day at Calais;[b] and, when this order was disregarded, openly
forbade the royalists to give to the traitor information, or to follow his
advice.[1]

But these precautions came too late. After the deposition of the protector,
Willis had continued to communicate with Thurloe, who with the intelligence

[Footnote 1: Clar. Pap. iii. 514, 517, 518, 520, 524, 526, 529, 531, 535,
536. Willis maintained his innocence, and found many to believe him. Echard
(p. 729) has published a letter with Morland's signature, in which he is
made to say that he never sent any of the letters of Willis to the king,
nor even so much as knew his name; whence Harris (ii. 215) infers that the
whole charge is false. That, however, it was true, no one can doubt who
will examine the proofs in the Clarendon Papers (iii. 518, 526, 529, 533,
535, 536, 542, 549, 556, 558, 562, 563, 574, 583, 585), and in Carte's
Collection of Letters (ii. 220, 256, 284). Indeed, the letter from Willis
of the 9th of May, 1660, soliciting the king's pardon, leaves no room for
doubt.--Clar. Pap. 643. That Morland was the informer, and, consequently,
the letter in Echard is a forgery, is also evident from the reward which
he received at the restoration, and from his own admission to Pepys.--See
Pepys, i. 79, 82, 133, 8vo. See also "Life of James II." 370.]

[Sidenote a: A.D. 1659. July 18.]
[Sidenote b: A.D. 1659. August 7.]

which he thus obtained, was enabled to purchase the forbearance of his
former opponents. At an early period in July, the council was in possession
of the plan of the royalists. Reinforcements were immediately demanded from
the armies in Flanders and Ireland; directions were issued for a levy of
fourteen regiments of one thousand men each;[a] measures were taken for
calling out the militia; numerous arrests were made in the city and every
part of the country; and the known Cavaliers were compelled to leave the
metropolis, and to produc