to modify the original purpose, and to give it a military colour.
Meanwhile, Sir Nicholas Crispe, a bolder spirit than Waller, had
organised a different scheme in favour of Charles. He had, when a
merchant in the city, procured a loan of £100,000 for the king; he had
then raised and taken the command of a regiment; he had obtained from
Charles a commission of array, which Lady Aubigny, ignorant of its
contents, was to deliver to a gentleman in London. Crispe's plan was
bold and comprehensive. He intended to remove the king's children to a
place of safety, to enlist soldiers, collect magazines, and raise monies
by contribution, to release the prisoners committed by the parliament,
to arrest some of the leading members in both Houses, to issue
declarations, and whenever the conspiracy was ripe, to raise flags at
Temple Bar, the Exchange, and other central spots.

It was impossible that two such plots could escape collision with each
other--or that either should be long concealed. On the 31st May 1643, a
fast-day, Pym is seated in St. Margaret's Church, hearing sermon. A
messenger enters and gives him a letter. He reads hastily--communicates
its intelligence in whispers to those beside him, and hurries out. No
time is lost. Pym and his party could not trifle now though they would,
and would not though they could. Waller and Tomkins are seized that
night in their houses, and overwhelmed with fear, confess everything. It
is suspected that Waller was betrayed by his sister, Mrs. Price, who was
married to a zealous parliamentarian. A strange story is told, that one
Goode, her chaplain, had stolen some of his papers, and would have got a
hold of them all, had not Waller, having DREAMED that his sister was
perfidious, risen and secured the rest. Clarendon, on the other hand,
says that the discovery was made by a servant of Tomkins, who acted as a
spy for the parliament. At all events, they were found out, and, in
their terror and pusillanimity, they betrayed their associates. The Duke