Hyde Park seems to have been fraught with danger to the Protector, for in 1657 there was a plot to have assassinated him. The chief conspirators were a man named Sindercombe, or Fish, a cashiered quarter-master in Monk’s army, and another named Cecil, who turned approver; who in his evidence[20] said, “That the first time they rode forth to kill him, was the latter end of _September_ last, (_viz._) the Saturday after he had left going to _Hampton Court_. “That the second time was when he rode to _Kensington_, and thence, the back way to _London_. “The third time, when he went to _Hide-Park_ in his coach. “The fourth time, when he went to _Turnham Green_, and so by _Acton_ home, at which time they rode forth to kill him, and resolved to break through all difficulties to effect it. “The fifth time, when he rode into _Hide-Park_, where his Highness alighting, asked him, the said _Cecil_, whose horse that was he rode on, _Sundercomb_ being then on the outside of the Park; and then _Cecill_ was ready to have done it, but doubted, his horse having at that time got a cold.” That they meant to kill the Protector there can be little doubt, and looked after their means of escape afterwards, for we read in the papers of the day[21] how--“Once, they thought to have done their work as his Highness was taking the aire in _Hide-Park_; and, to make way for their Escape, they had, in one place, Filed off the Hinges of the Gates, and rode about with the train attending his Highness, with intent to have given him a fatall Charge, if he had chanced to have galloped out at any distance from the company.” They also had pulled down some of the fencing, so as to leave them another place of egress. Sindercombe was tried, found guilty, and sentenced to be hanged, drawn and quartered; but, on the night previous to his execution, he found means to poison himself, and so cheated the gallows. The coroner’s jury found a verdict of _felo de se_,[22] and “On the same day, _February 17_, _Miles Sindercom_ aforesaid, being found to have murthered himself, his Body was, according to Law, drawn to the open place upon _Tower Hill_, at a Horses Taile, with his head foreward, and there, under the Scaffold of Common execution, a Hole being digg’d, he was turned in stark naked, and a stake, spiked with Iron, was driven through him into the earth; That part of the stake which remaines above ground, being all plated with Iron, which may stand as an example of terror to all Traytors for the time to come.”