from which it appears that the Parliament and the city were soon to
be delivered into the hands of the cavaliers.

They perhaps yet knew little themselves, beyond some general and
indistinct notices. "But Waller," says Clarendon, "was so
confounded with fear, that he confessed whatever he had heard, said,
thought, or seen; all that he knew of himself, and all that he
suspected of others, without concealing any person of what degree or
quality soever, or any discourse which he had ever upon any occasion
entertained with them; what such and such ladies of great honour, to
whom, upon the credit of his wit and great reputation, he had been
admitted, had spoken to him in their chambers upon the proceedings
in the Houses, and how they had encouraged him to oppose them; what
correspondence and intercourse they had with some Ministers of State
at Oxford, and how they had conveyed all intelligence thither." He
accused the Earl of Portland and Lord Conway as co-operating in the
transaction; and testified that the Earl of Northumberland had
declared himself disposed in favour of any attempt that might check
the violence of the Parliament, and reconcile them to the king.

He undoubtedly confessed much which they could never have
discovered, and perhaps somewhat which they would wish to have been
suppressed; for it is inconvenient in the conflict of factions, to
have that disaffection known which cannot safely be punished.

Tomkyns was seized on the same night with Waller, and appears
likewise to have partaken of his cowardice; for he gave notice of
Crispe's commission of array, of which Clarendon never knew how it
was discovered. Tomkyns had been sent with the token appointed, to
demand it from Lady Aubigny, and had buried it in his garden, where,