was actually advancing northward to meet him, Monck sent three commissioners to London, with very earnest professions of an accommodation, by which means he relaxed their preparations. His commissioners even proceeded so far as to sign a treaty, which he refused to ratify. Still, however, he made proposals for fresh negotiations; and the committee of officers again accepted his fallacious offers.

In the mean time, the people, perceiving that they were not entirely defenceless, began to gather spirit, and to exclaim loudly against the tyranny of the army. Hazelrig and Morley, while Lambert was absent, took possession of Portsmouth, and declared for the parliament. The city-apprentices rose in a tumult, and demanded a free parliament; admiral Lawson came into the river with his squadron, and declared for the parliament; and even the regiments that had been left in London, being solicited by their old officers, who had been cashiered, revolted again to the parliament. The Rump, thus being invited on all hands, again ventured to resume their seats, and to thunder their votes in turn against the officers, and that part of the army by which they had been ejected. Without taking any notice of Lambert, they sent orders to the troops he conducted, immediately to repair to the garrisons they appointed for them. The soldiers were not slow in obeying the parliamentary orders; and Lambert at last found himself deserted by his whole army. He was soon after committed to the Tower; several of his brother officers cashiered; and the parliament seemed now to stand on a firmer basis than before.

But they were far from being so secure as they

imagined.

imagined. Monck, though he had heard of their restitution, and therefore might be supposed to have nothing more to do, still continued to march his army towards the capital; all the world equally in doubt as to his motives, and astonished at his reserve. The gentry, on his march, flocked round him with entreaties and addresses, expressing their desire of a new parliament. Fairfax brought him a body of troops, with which he offered to assist in the work of restoration; but Monck continued his inflexible taciturnity, and at last came to St. Alban's, within a few miles of London."

He there sent the parliament a message, desiring them to remove such forces as remained in London to country quarters. With this some of the regiments refused to comply, but Monck was resolved to be obeyed; he entered London the next day, turned the soldiers out, and, with his army, took up his quarters in Westminster. He then waited upon the house, which was ready enough to vote him their sincere thanks for the services he had done his country. But he, in a blunt manner, assured them, that his only merit was a desire to restore peace to the community; and, therefore, he entreated them that they would permit a free parliament to be called, as the only balm that could heal the wounds of the constitution. He observed also, that many oaths of admission upon this occasion were unnecessary; and the fewer the obligations of this kind, the clearer would their consciences be.

The hope of being insolent with security soon inspired the citizens to refuse submission to the present government. They resolved to pay no taxes, until the members, formerly excluded

by colonel Pride, should be replaced. But the parliament found their general willing to give them the most ready instances of his obedience; he entered the city with his troops, arrested eleven of the most obnoxious of the common-council, and began to destroy the gates. Then he wrote a letter to the parliament, telling them what he had done; and begging they would moderate. the severity of their orders. But being urged by the house to proceed, he, with all possible circumstances of contempt, broke the gates and portcullises; and having exposed the city to the scorn and derision of all who hated it, he returned in triumph to his quarters in Westminster. But the next day he began to think he had proceeded too vigorously in this act of obedience; he therefore marched into the city again, and desired the mayor to call a common-council, where he made many apologies for his conduct the day before. He assured them of his perseverance in the cause of freedom; and that his army would, for the future, co-operate only in such schemes as they should approve.

This union of the city and the army caused no small alarm in the house of commons. They knew that a free and general parliament was desired by the whole nation; and, in 'such a case, they were convinced that their own power must have an end. But their fears of punishment were still greater than their uneasiness at dismission; they had been instrumental in bringing their king to the block, in loading the nation with various taxes, and some of them had grown rich by the common plunder; they resolved, therefore, to try every method to gain over the general from his new alliance; even some of

them,

them, desperate with guilt and fanaticism, promised to invest him with the dignity of supreme magistrate, and to support his usurpation. But Monck was too just, or too wise, to hearken to such wild proposals; he resolved to restore the secluded members, and by their means to bring about a new election, which was what he desired.

There was no other method to effect this, but by force of arms: wherefore, having previously secured the consent of his officers, and exacted a promise from the excluded members, that they would call a full and free parliament, he accompanied them to Whitehall. From thence, with a numerous guard, he conducted them to the house of commons, the other members of which were then sitting. They were surprised to see a largebody of men entering the place; but soon recollected them for their ancient brethren, who had been formerly tumultuously expelled, and were now as tumultuously restored. The number of the new comers were so superior to that of the Rump, that the chiefs of this last party now, in their turn,: thought proper to withdraw.

The restored members began by repealing allthose orders by which they had been excluded. They renewed and enlarged the general's commission; they fixed a proper stipend for the support of the fleet and army; and having passed these votes for the composure of the kingdom, they dissolved themselves, and gave orders for the immediate assembling a new parliament. Meanwhile Monck new-modelled his army to the purposes he had in view. Some officers, by his direction, presented him with an address, in which they promised to obey implicitly the orders of the ensuing parliament. He approved of this engage

1

A.D. 1660.

ment, which he ordered to be signed by all the different regiments; and this furnished him with a pretence for dismissing all the officers by whom it was rejected.

In the midst of these transactions his endeavours were very near being defeated by an accident as dangerous as unexpected. Lambert had escaped from the Tower, and began to assemble forces; and, as his activity and principles were sufficiently known, Monck took the earliest precautions to oppose his measures. He dispatched colonel Ingoldsby with his own regiment against Lambert, before he should have time to assemble his dependents. That officer had taken possession of Daventry with four troops of horse; but the greater part of them joined Ingoldsby, to whom he himself surrendered, not without exhibiting marks of pusillanimity that ill agreed with his former repu

tation.

The new parliament was not yet assembled, and no person had hitherto dived into the designs of the general. He still persevered in his reserve; and although the calling a new parliament was but, in other words, to restore the king, yet his expressions never once betrayed the secret of his bosom. Nothing but a security of confidence at last extorted the confession from him. He had been intimate with one Morrice, a gentleman of Devonshire, of a sedentary, studious disposition, and with him alone did he deliberate upon the great and dangerous enterprise of the restoration. Sir John Granville, who had a commission from the king, applied for access to the general; but he was desired to communicate his business to Morrice. Granville refused, though twice urged, to deliver