About Lambert the speculation seems to have been absurd; and, though Cromwell must have known that Fairfax was now inclining generally towards a Restoration, he cannot have believed anything stronger at present in his case.

There was no public reference to such high personages; nor, with the exception of some friendly expostulation by the Protector with a young Mr.John Stapley of Sussex (son of Stapley the Regicide and Councillor of the Commonwealth), who _had_ been lured into the business, was any account taken of the other miscellaneous persons in Hewit's list of reputable sympathisers.

It was enough for Cromwell to know who had swerved so far, and to have made examples of Hewit himself and Slingsby .-- These two would have been the only victims but for a wild sub-conspiracy in the City of London while the trials of Hewit and Slingsby were in progress.

A few desperate cavaliers about town, the chief of whom were a Sir William Leighton, a Colonel Deane, and a Colonel Manley, holding commissions from Charles, had met several times at the Mermaid Tavern and elsewhere, and had arranged for a midnight tumult on Saturday the 15th of May.

They were to attack the guard at St.Paul's, seize the Lord Mayor, raise a conflagration near the Tower, &c.