again, within seven days after Armourer's release, a similar
'cross-providence' occurred. A Mr. Broughton, evidently another
Royalist, was taken out of Captain Wilson's custody, much to his
surprise and vexation, and set free by the Mayor of Dover.

The release of one or two prisoners under a Commission from H.H. the
Protector does not, however, prove that he purposely admitted into
England that gang of conspirators. But even that can be proved. Thurloe
and Cromwell knew on the best authority that the Royalists regarded Mr.
Day as their ally; for Armourer, in that letter, mentions 'Mr. Robert
Day, Clarke of the Passage' as a man ready to do him service. Yet
Cromwell, knowing that Armourer and O'Neale were the precursors of even
more dangerous associates, who would also resort to Mr. Day, retained
him in his post; and in spite of prompt and repeated warnings from the
Continent, that Day was a traitor, he acted as Clerk of the Passage
until, during the following July, he had seen safe back across the
Channel the conspirators whom he had admitted in March. And as if the
more fully to trick the Royalists, Day was permitted by the Protector to
intervene actively in their behalf. The Clerk of the Passage obtained,
by his personal undertaking for Armourer's good conduct, the requisite
pass inward, and certified that he was, in truth, a merchant from
Rotterdam.[38]

It follows from the assistance which the Protector gave to Armourer,
that his man 'Morris' was restored to his master, and that the Earl of
Rochester, after repeated detention and examination, was set free. And
again Cromwell reappears as the patron of the conspiracy. According to
information imparted to the King by Cromwell's nephew, Colonel William
Cromwell, 'my Lord of Rochester was known to Cromwell to be in England
as soon as he landed,' and was met by pretended agents from the army,
Rochester's friends 'in show,' but the Protector's 'really,' who, to
make the Earl 'have the greater confidence' in the enterprise, gave him
false offers of co-operation, and assurances that Cromwell's soldiers
were ripe for mutiny.[39] And facts confirm Colonel Cromwell's words.

Immediately after his final escape from the custody of Captain Wilson,
the Earl of Rochester 'found Mr. Morton, who carries on their trade
there, ready to come, with some account of his business.'[40] If Morton
had been a true Royalist, in momentary fear for himself, and for the
success of an insurrecti