uring January 1655,
that 'since no rising of the Army is to be hoped for, any rising of the
King's party would only be to their destruction.'[31]

To a person who desired to stimulate an insurrection against the
Protector the course was therefore clear. He must act on the impatient
credulity of those who shared in their King's exile. Far from the scene
of action, they might be persuaded that the Anabaptists and the
discontented soldiers had leagued together, and that the warnings of the
'Sealed Knot' might be set at naught. Charles was thus acted upon. As
the wicked King of Israel was lured on to his destruction by the cry of
false prophets bidding him to go up and prosper, the King was persuaded
to disregard his best counsellors, to believe that 30,000 Royalists were
armed and ready to join in an organized revolt, so skilfully planned
that it would break out, at one moment, all over England, with the
co-operation of the Levellers, and of a portion of Cromwell's army.
Charles was also assured, that if he would but fix the day, the
insurrection would immediately take place.

The King was hard to persuade; young as he was, his sagacity was not
wanting. He long remained incredulous: he did not believe the
'expresses' which reached him 'every day' from England: he felt sure
that those zealous emissaries were deceived. More messengers accordingly
crossed the water: they were confident that 'the rising would be
general, and many places seized upon, and some declare for the King
which were in the hands of the army, for they still pretended, and did
believe, "that a part of the army would declare against Cromwell, at
least, though not for the King."'

Those messengers, however, would promise nothing, if Charles did not,
when the Earl of Rochester and his associates started for England,
approve the reality of the plot, by stationing himself on the sea coast,
that he might 'quickly put himself into the head of the Army, which
would be ready to receive him.' And he was warned that this was his last
chance, and that 'if he neglected that opportunity,' his followers would
desert him, as one hopelessly apathetic. Besides these threats, the
persons, who dispatched those messengers from England, resorted to other
means to force Charles into the enterprise. They appointed the day for
the outbreak: he was not able 'to send orders to contradict it:' so he
felt constrained, 'with little noise,' to quit Cologne for Middleburg,
to await t