So,another fleet was despatched under two commanders,PENN and VENABLES,for Hispaniola;where,however,the Spaniards got the better of the fight.Consequently,the fleet came home again,after taking Jamaica on the way.Oliver,indignant with the two commanders who had not done what bold Admiral Blake would have done,clapped them both into prison,declared war against Spain,and made a treaty with France,in virtue of which it was to shelter the King and his brother the Duke of York no longer.Then,he sent a fleet abroad under bold Admiral Blake,which brought the King of Portugal to his senses-just to keep its hand in-and then engaged a Spanish fleet,sunk four great ships,and took two more,laden with silver to the value of two millions of pounds:which dazzling prize was brought from Portsmouth to London in waggons,with the populace of all the towns and villages through which the waggons passed,shouting with all their might.After this victory,bold Admiral Blake sailed away to the port of Santa Cruz to cut off the Spanish treasure-ships coming from Mexico.There,he found them,ten in number,with seven others to take care of them,and a big castle,and seven batteries,all roaring and blazing away at him with great guns.Blake cared no more for great guns than for pop-guns-no more for their hot iron balls than for snow-balls.
He dashed into the harbour,captured and burnt every one of the ships,and came sailing out again triumphantly,with the victorious English flag flying at his masthead.This was the last triumph of this great commander,who had sailed and fought until he was quite worn out.He died,as his successful ship was coming into Plymouth Harbour amidst the joyful acclamations of the people,and was buried in state in Westminster Abbey.Not to lie there,long.
Over and above all this,Oliver found that the VAUDOIS,or Protestant people of the valleys of Lucerne,were insolently treated by the Catholic powers,and were even put to death for their religion,in an audacious and bloody manner.Instantly,he informed those powers that this was a thing which Protestant England would not allow;and he speedily carried his point,through the might of his great name,and established their right to worship God in peace after their own harmless manner.
Lastly,his English army won such admiration in fighting with the French against the Spaniards,that,after they had assaulted the town of Dunkirk together,the French King in person gave it up to the English,that it might be a token to them of their might and valour.
There were plots enough against Oliver among the frantic religionists (who called themselves Fifth Monarchy Men),and among the disappointed Republicans.He had a difficult game to play,for the Royalists were always ready to side with either party against him.The 'King over the water,'too,as Charles was called,had no scruples about plotting with any one against his life;although there is reason to suppose that he would willingly have married one of his daughters,if Oliver would have had such a son-in-law.
There was a certain COLONEL SAXBY of the army,once a great supporter of Oliver's but now turned against him,who was a grievous trouble to him through all this part of his career;and who came and went between the discontented in England and Spain,and Charles who put himself in alliance with Spain on being thrown off by France.This man died in prison at last;but not until there had been very serious plots between the Royalists and Republicans,and an actual rising of them in England,when they burst into the city of Salisbury,on a Sunday night,seized the judges who were going to hold the assizes there next day,and would have hanged them but for the merciful objections of the more temperate of their number.Oliver was so vigorous and shrewd that he soon put this revolt down,as he did most other conspiracies;and it was well for one of its chief managers-that same Lord Wilmot who had assisted in Charles's flight,and was now EARL OF
ROCHESTER-that he made his escape.Oliver seemed to have eyes and ears everywhere,and secured such sources of information as his enemies little dreamed of.There was a chosen body of six persons,called the Sealed Knot,who were in the closest and most secret confidence of Charles.One of the foremost of these very men,a SIR RICHARD WILLIS,reported to Oliver everything that passed among them,and had two hundred a year for it.
MILES SYNDARCOMB,also of the old army,was another conspirator against the Protector.He and a man named CECIL,bribed one of his Life Guards to let them have good notice when he was going out-intending to shoot him from a window.But,owing either to his caution or his good fortune,they could never get an aim at him.
Disappointed in this design,they got into the chapel in Whitehall,with a basketful of combustibles,which were to explode by means of a slow match in six hours;then,in the noise and confusion of the fire,they hoped to kill Oliver.But,the Life Guardsman himself disclosed this plot;and they were seized,and Miles died (or killed himself in prison)a little while before he was ordered for execution.A few such plotters Oliver caused to be beheaded,a few more to be hanged,and many more,including those who rose in arms against him,to be sent as slaves to the West Indies.If he were rigid,he was impartial too,in asserting the laws of England.
When a Portuguese nobleman,the brother of the Portuguese ambassador,killed a London citizen in mistake for another man with whom he had had a quarrel,Oliver caused him to be tried before a jury of Englishmen and foreigners,and had him executed in spite of the entreaties of all the ambassadors in London.