By W. W. Ravenhill, Esq. 



151 



His Highness the Lord Protector was at this time at Whitehall. 

 On the 21st March we read in the Mercurius Politicus, March 2 2nd, 



" he kept a day of prayer and thanksgiving to the Lord, the author of all de- 

 liverance and mercies ;" 



and of the day's proceedings the Weekly Intelligencer, March 20th 

 to 27 th, adds, 



" that it was a day kept in Whitehall in thanksgiving to God for our deliver- 

 ance from the late plot, and after a speech by His Highness, giving God the praise, 

 there prayed and preached, Dr. French, Mr. Caroll, Mr. Craddock, and Master 

 Lo elder." 



Much long talking, such as His Highness loved. Great pleasure 

 there must have been to him that day too, when he received from the 

 city of Salisbury a remonstrance, stating 



u their detestation of that traiterous insurrection, which first took fire within 

 their walls, through the insolence of a crew of desperate persons.* 



Penruddock on his arrival in London, after a preliminary exami- 

 nation at Whitehall, was lodged in the Tower. 



The Perfect Account, April 4th to 11th, says of this : — 



"Penruddock and Jones were brought to Whitehall, and upon examination 

 Penruddock confessed having proclaimed Charles Stuart, and was sent to the 

 Tower." 



He appears to have remained in London, and Westminster, to- 

 gether with Jones, till the 9th of April. Perfect Proceedings of 

 State Affairs, another newspaper of that period, in its number for 

 the 15th of April, has the following :— - 



" This day (April 9th) Colonel Penruddock and Jones, who have been severall 

 times examined by His Highness the Lord Protector, were sent down towards the 

 West, with a party of horse from. the Swane Inn in the Strand,* where they have 

 been kept prisoners since they came to Westminster, to be tryed by Common Law 

 according to a Commission of Oyer and Terminer. They would now make a 

 pretence that they did not rise for Charles Stuart but for the liberties of the 

 people. Mr. Mack, the apothecary that came up from Salisbury, is also sent 

 from the prison at Lambeth, prisoner down with them." 



* Mercurius Politicus, March lGth to 20th ; Perfect Diurnall, March 12th to 26th, 1655. 

 + The Swan Avas a celebrated tavern at Charing 1 Cross, and a more convenient place than the Towe 

 for the custody of prisoners under examination at Whitehall, Ben Jonson's Ralph the tapster had 

 no doubt long ceased before then to draw breath or becr. 



