The indirect plan would be to fraternize with the City, declare for "a full and free Parliament"-- not that Parliament for which Whitlocke was preparing writs, but the fuller and freer one, unfettered by Wallingford-House "qualifications," for which the Royalists had been astutely calling out,--and then either take the field with his forces under that banner, or else, if the forces he could rally proved too small, shut himself up in the Tower, and trust to the City itself till the effect were seen.

The other way would be to dispatch an envoy to the King at once with offers and instructions.

Whitlocke himself was equally willing to go into the Tower with Fleetwood or to be his envoy to Charles.

After some rumination, Fleetwood, as Whitlocke understood, had concluded for the latter plan, and Whitlocke was taking leave of him, with that understanding, to prepare for his journey, when they found Vane, Desborough, and Berry, in the ante-chamber.

At Fleetwood's request Whitlocke waited there, while the new comers and Fleetwood consulted in the other room.