Cromwell remained only about a fortnight near Grantham, and was then ordered to Nottingham to concert measures with the Midland commanders for the support of the Fairfaxes, who were hard pressed by the Earl of Newcastle in Yorkshire. He found a concealed traitor in the camp. Within four days of his defeat at Ancaster (April 15), young Captain Hotham had opened a correspondence with Newcastle, in the course of which he volunteered to betray Hull and Lincoln to the King. But he seems to have been a bad conspirator. When the news arrived of a small success of Sir T. Fairfax at Wakefield, he persuaded the other commanders to send Fairfax a message that their help would not now be needed. He began to correspond directly with the Queen, who arrived at Newark on June 16; but Cromwell and Colonel Hutchinson, who had long suspected him, procured an order for his arrest (June 18). He was committed to a guard for conveyance to London, but on the way succeeded in escaping to Lincoln, where he evidently had supporters, and whence he wrote to the Speaker to complain that Cromwell had employed an Anabaptist against him. On June 27 the Queen wrote to the King that she was delaying two days for the fulfilment of “young Hotham’s” promise to render up Hull and Lincoln; but, before the two days were over, the conspirator and his father were both arrested at Hull and sent up by sea to London, where they were executed on Tower Hill early the next year. Three days later (July 2) the attempt upon Lincoln was made, and completely failed. Two brothers named Purefoy, agents of the Hothams, introduced sixty Cavaliers disguised as “market-folk” into the city, where they were concealed in the Deanery. In the nick of time a letter from the Mayor of Hull caused the arrest of the Purefoys, but their accomplices sallied out and endeavoured to secure the magazine. However, the discharge of a cannon by an inexperienced countryman killed some of them, and the rest were dispersed or taken.