imself
supplied a hint which might have provoked some curiosity about the
nature of that 'Rebellion.'

For surely it is odd that 'such a terrible Protector this; no getting of
him overset!' should have been compelled to contend with the notorious
and obstinate incredulity of the members of his Parliament regarding the
late attempt to overset him? Yet Cromwell's speech of September 1656 is
pervaded with expressions such as these, regarding the 'bold and
dangerous Insurrection' of March 1655,--'I think the world must know and
acknowledge, that it was a general design,'--'I doubt if it be believed,
that there was any rising,' either in North Wales or at Shrewsbury, or
on Marston Moor, 'at the very time when there was an Insurrection at
Salisbury'--' therefore, how men of wicked spirits may traduce Us in
that matter--I leave it!'[59] Surely 'sluggish mortals, saved from
destruction,' not caused by secret agencies, but from an actual
'Rebellion,' which threatened to bring every one of them into 'blood and
confusion,' need not be required to believe in the very existence of so
great and conspicuous a danger!

And Cromwell felt that he could not afford to leave that 'matter'
untouched. A suspicion was prevalent, during the whole of Cromwell's
reign, that plots were manufactured to suit his purposes. He knew that
full well; he knew also the danger of such a suspicion. The surmises of
the 'men of wicked spirits,' were those 'half tales,' that 'be truths.'
It had been hoped that such a 'real plot' as 'the late Insurrection,'
would give that suspicion a quietus. When it was safely transacted,
Thurloe and his associates congratulated each other over that hope.[60]
But it was not fulfilled. Hence arises the tone of angered honesty,
which Cromwell so repeatedly assumed when he addressed his Parliament,
and Carlyle's indignant protest--'What a position for a hero, to be
reduced continually to say he does not lie!'

But what was Cromwell's motive in the fabrication of this Insurrection
of March, 1655? It was not, as might be suggested, a device to thwart by
a premature explosion, a dangerous conspiracy during a critical moment
in the Protectorate. Cromwell himself asserts in his 'Declaration,' that
'this Attempt was made, when nothing but a well-formed Power could hope
to put Us into disorder; Scotland and Ireland being perfectly reduced;
Differences with most Neighbour Nations composed; our Forces, both by
Sea and Land, in order an