revolt.
Not a single landowner of importance went out with Wagstaff. Though he
had been told off by the King expressly for that service, no Royalist of
eminent position answered the King's call. They, also, doubtless
suspected Douthwaite, an unknown, low-class stranger, who took upon
himself to summon them to arms against the Protector. And Douthwaite was
undoubtedly the chief instigator of that attempt, 'the very principal
verb' in the affair: a very capable witness, Major Butler, so described
him. In itself this was a suspicious circumstance. And another reason
may be urged for deeming that Cromwell, and not the King, was served by
Douthwaite. Like a shady witness, he proved too much. Antedating the
event by at least three weeks, he asserted in February, that Charles had
left Cologne for the Dutch coast, 'for an opportunity to sail for
England.' This was a startling piece of news, and most arousing to a
hearty Royalist: and the King did take that step on the 4th of March.
But it is noteworthy that a foreknowledge of the King's movements, which
was undoubtedly possessed by Cromwell and Thurloe in London, should have
been so speedily communicated to Douthwaite, in the depths of
Somersetshire.[43]

Whilst England was thus being prepared for the coming insurrection, the
Earl of Rochester went to London, where, although soldiers were
stationed at the ends of the streets, and extra precautions taken
against the Royalists, 'he consulted,' as Clarendon observes, 'with
great freedom with the King's friends.' Nor were he and his comrades
hindered from traversing England, and passing on into Wiltshire and
Yorkshire, that they might head the intended rendezvous of the Royalists
on Salisbury Plain and Marston Moor; the very places, it should be
remembered, that rumour had designated for a gathering of the Levellers.
Cromwell was powerless: he dared not touch the men he had passed into
England: the object for which he had admitted them must be fulfilled,
even to the end.

That the end, which Cromwell desired, followed the lines indicated by
his master hand, might be anticipated. But he could not allow the
project to become too real; a necessity that rather stood in his way.
His power of creating the semblance of an actual insurrection was
limited. Of the 'hidden works,' all over England, which he attributed
to the Royalists, but one mine actually exploded, one nearly went off,
and the rest remained dormant. The tameness of that s