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HISTORY OF ENGLAND.

V

chap, especially for the selection of jurymen' not likely to be1685. troubled with scruples in political cases. He bad been deeplyconcerned in those dark and atrocious parts of the Whig plotwhich had been carefully concealed from the most respectableWhigs. Nor is it possible to plead, in extenuation of his guilt,that he was misled by inordinate zetl for the public good.For it will be seen that, after having disgraced a noble causeby his crimes, he betrayed it in order to escape from his wellmerited punishment. *

Rumboid. Very different was the character of Richard Rumbold.He had held a commission in Cromwell’s own regiment, hadguarded the scaffold before the Banqueting House on the dayof the great execution, had fought at Dunbar and Worcester,and had always shown in the highest degree the qualitieswhich distinguished the invincible army in which he served,courage of the truest temper, fiery enthusiasm, both politicaland religious, and, with that enthusiasm, all the power ofself-government which is characteristic of men trained in welldisciplined camps to command and to obey. When therepublican troops were disbanded, Rumbold became amaltster, and carried on his trade near Hoddesdon, in thatbuilding from which the Rye House Plot derives its name.It had been suggested, though not absolutely determined, inthe conferences of the most violent and unscrupulous of themalecontents, that armed men should be stationed in the RyeHouse to attack the Guards who were to escort Charles andJames from Newmarket to London. In these conferencesRumbold had borne a part from which he would have shrunkwith horror if his clear understanding had not been over-clouded, and his manly heart corrupted, by party spirit.**

* Sprat’s True Account and Appendix, paisim.

** Sprat’s True Account and Appendix; Proceedings against Rumboldin the Collection of Slate Trials; Burnet’s own Times, i. 633.; Appendixto Fox’s History, No. IV.