At length April came, and the bare brown garden was glorious with the gold and purple of the crocus flowers and the moonlight beauty of the lilies. Birds were building in the hedges, and the sun shone brightly overhead. The spirit of spring was everywhere; men and boys went whistling along the streets, the watermen were singing in their barges, and a feeling of busy content and security pervaded London, and, indeed, all England.
Suddenly, this atmosphere of cheerful labour and abounding hope was filled with terror and with a cry of murder, of possible war and another struggle for liberty. A gigantic plot for the assassination of the Protector was discovered--that is, it was discovered to the people; Cromwell himself had been aware of its first inception, and had watched it grow to its shameful maturity. He had seen the wavering give it aid, and those who were his professed friends, strike hands with those pledged to strike him to the heart. Two months previously he had retired a number of foolish Royalist officers, broken to pieces their silly plans, and given them their lives; but this drama of assassination came from Charles Stuart and Prince Rupert, and from the headquarters of royalty in the French capital. Its programme in Charles' name giving "liberty to any man whatsoever, in any way, to destroy the life of the base mechanic fellow, Oliver Cromwell," had been in Cromwell's possession from the time of its printing, and he knew not only every soul connected with the plot, but also the day and the hour and the very spot in which, and on which, his life was to be taken. But to the city of London the arrest of forty conspirators in their midst, was a shock that suspended for a time all their business.
Israel Swaffham was the first person called into the Protector's presence. He found him in great sorrow, sorrow mingled with a just indignation. Standing by the long table in the Council Chamber, he struck it violently with his clenched hand as he pointed out to Israel the personalities of the conspirators. At one name he paused, and with his finger upon it, looked into Israel's face. And as iron struck by iron answers the blow, so Israel answered that sorrowful, inquiring gaze.