LETTERS IN CYPHER.

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imaginable reverence to my Lord of Ely and assure him, that the King will always return that candour, benignity and equality to both the Universities, which he wishes; and I hope all who shall be entrusted by him in that great affair will be as just and dispassioned in all their interpositions and look upon them as equal lights to learning and piety and equally worthy of all encouragement and protection. And if at present my Lord of Ely will recommend any person to his Majesty for the Bishoprick of Carlisle, he shall be approved. And if my Lord will transmit a list of persons to be specially recommended to the King for any dignities of the Church, I dare promise the persons shall find that they could not have been better recommended. I know not what more to add but my hearty service to your sick friend,1 whose health I pray for as a publick concernment. To yourself I shall say no more but that I shall think myself very faulty if I do not serve you very heartily, and if you do not with the first receive some evidence of the sense the King hath of your service.

'I am very heartily, Sir, your most affectionate 'HYDE.'

servant,

These letters, thirty-six in number, were transmitted in cypher, and with the utmost precaution and considerable delay in awaiting a safe opportunity; the one quoted from is endorsed 'Received not till Aug. 29.' Nor was the cypher, however carefully contrived, 1 Probably Bishop Juxon, more than once alluded to under this name in these letters.

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always a security when the letters fell into the wrong hands. Dr. Wallis, the mathematician, was a most skilful decypherer, and was the person who decyphered the King's papers taken in his cabinet at Naseby, though the Royalists considered this a vain boast until Matthew Wren, the Bishop's eldest son, obtained the proof of it from Dr. Wallis himself. One important letter from Dr. Barwick to Mr. Hyde fell into Dr. Wallis' hands; Mr. Allestry his coadjutor coming from Brussels was seized and imprisoned as soon as he landed. Bishop Morton of Durham, the last surviving Prelate of the province of York, had died, as his epitaph says, 'deprived of all his goods except a good name and a good conscience.' The rising in Cheshire had been unsuccessful. Monk refused to give even his brother any hint of his intentions, and made no reply to the letter which King Charles sent to him from Breda. In short, matters were as adverse as it was possible for them to be, but yet Dr. Barwick was undiscouraged; with fresh precautions the correspondence with Mr. Hyde was resumed, and in truth the matter pressed; 'for,' says Dr. Barwick, writing in Sept. 1659, after mentioning his circuit among some of the surviving Bishops, I fear this winter will go hard with some of them that may worst be spared in the due performance of such a work.' It is evident that Dr. Barwick was able to see and consult the imprisoned Bishop of Ely whenever it was needful. These hurried meetings, full of anxiety and peril as they were, must have been a great refreshment to the 1 Life of Dr. Barwick, p. 437.

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'WHAT IS TO BECOME OF THE CHURCH?'

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Bishop, who thus still took part in the work of the Church. He declined to send any list of names to the King, though he pressed Dr. Barwick to accept the Bishoprick of Man. Mr. Hyde1 wrote a letter in September, which was not received till November 10, where he says:

'The King hath done all that is in his power to do; and if my Lords the Bishops will not do the rest, what is to become of the Church? The conspiracies to destroy it are very evident; and if there be no combination to preserve it, it must expire. I do assure you the names of all the Bishops who are alive, and their several ages, are as well known at Rome as in England, and both the Papist and the Presbyterian value themselves very much upon computing in how few years the Church of England must expire.' . . . And again : And again: His Majesty is most confident that the Bishop of Ely will give all the assistance and advice which his restraint will permit him to do.. ... I do beseech you,' says the next letter, 'present my humble service to my Lord of Ely, whose benediction, I do hope to live to receive at his own feet. I pray send me word our sick friend is in perfect health.'

But little progress appears to have been made, since Mr. Hyde writes, Nov. 28:

'I can say no more with reference to the Church, but that if there be nothing hinders it but the winter it be quickly over, whilst preparations are making ;

and yet, God knows, it will be almost a miracle, if the winter doth not take away half the Bishops that are left alive; and I must still lament that some way is not found that the Bishop of Ely may be at liberty; which would carry on this work more than any expedient that I can think of.'

An entry in Evelyn's diary shows the general state of affairs at this time :

'October II. The armie now turned out the Parliament. We had now no government in the nation; all in confusion; no magistrate either own'd or pretended but the souldiers, and they not agreed. God Almighty have mercy on and settle us!'

Evelyn was not slack in doing what in him lay towards this much-desired settlement:

'November 7. Was published my bold "Apologie"

for the King in this time of danger when it was capital to speake or write in favour of him. It was printed twice, so universally it took.'

A fast was kept in secret, apparently about once a fortnight, by the Churchmen in London to pray 'for God's mercy to our calamitous Church.'

On February 3, 1660, Evelyn writes :

General Monk came to London from Scotland, but no man knew what he would do or declare. Yet he was met on all his way by the gentlemen of all the counties which he passed, with petitions that he would recall the old, long-interrupted Parliament, and settle the nation in some order, being at this

BISHOP WREN'S RELEASE.

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time in most prodigious confusion and under no government, everybody expecting what would be next and what he would do.'

Later in the same month Mr. Hyde wrote almost in despair to Dr. Barwick: It would be very good news if I could hear of my Lord of Ely being in full liberty, to whom I pray present my humble service. The truth is I have but little hope of the business of the Church but by his being at liberty, and therefore I hope he will make no scruple of accepting it if it be offered, or if it can be reasonably obtained.'

The suspense which Evelyn describes had not long to be endured. On February 11, the very day after Monk had dismayed the city by breaking down its gates and allowing the soldiers to march about it in triumph, he turned out the Parliament then sitting at Westminster, and called together the former one, to the great joy of the people. From this moment all hearts and wishes turned to the exiled royal family as the one hope left of tranquillity and order; thus suddenly, when the royalist hopes were lowest, their hearts' desire was given to them.

Monk, now in supreme power, did not forget the Bishop of Ely, whose fellow-captive he had been and who must have rejoiced to see Monk at last justify his confidence. On March 15 the lieutenant of the Tower received the order 'That Dr. Wren, Bishop of Ely, be discharged from his imprisonment.' Thus the eighteen years of captivity came to an end, and the Life of Dr. Barwick p. 496.

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