Page:Cassell's Illustrated History of England vol 3.djvu/383

] and all the chief commands throughout the kingdom, in the hand of the principal nobility and gentry; and only stipulated that no person should be capable of office or command who did not subscribe to the confession—"that the war raised by the two houses of parliament against the late king was just and lawful, until such time as force and violence were used upon the parliament in the year 1648."

But at this point it was contended by the royalists that the house of lords was as much a house as themselves, and that they could not legally summon a new parliament without them; but Monk would listen to nothing of this kind. He declared that as much had been conceded as the country would bear; and the parliament was reluctantly compelled to dissolve itself at the time fixed.

There could certainly be no longer any uncertainty as to whither all this was tending. The royalists were again in full power all over the kingdom, the very insurgents in the cause of Charles were liberated, freed from all penalties, and in many cases advanced to places of trust; yet Monk still dissembled. Ludlow, a staunch republican, on the readmission of the excluded members, went to Monk to sound him as to his intentions, and urged the necessity of supporting the commonwealth, which had cost them so much. Monk replied with solemn hypocrisy, "Yea, we must live and die together for a commonwealth." Yet Monk had now made up his mind: he saw that all was prepared, all perfectly safe, and during the recess he was busy arranging with the king's agents for his return. Immediately on Monk's joyful reception by the city, a Mr. Baillie, who had gone through Cheapside amongst the bonfires, and heard the king's health drunk in various places, and people talking of sending for the king, had posted off to Brussels, where Charles was. On this Sir John Grenville and a Mr. Morrice, a Devonshire royalist, were instantly sent over to Monk, with propositions for the king's return. Clarendon assures us that so early as the beginning of April these gentlemen were in London, and in consultation with Monk, who told them that if the king would write a letter to parliament containing the same statements, he would find a fit time to deliver it, or some other means to serve his majesty; but that Charles must quit Flanders to give his partisans confidence that he was out of the power of the Spaniards, and would be free to act on their call; that he must go to Breda, and date his papers thence.

All this was done, and so little secrecy was observed by the royalists on the continent, that it was immediately known at all the courts that the king was about to be recalled, and Spaniards, Dutch, French princes and ministers, who had treated Charles with the utmost neglect and contempt, now overwhelmed him with compliments, invitations, flatteries, and offers. The Dutch court, where the mother of the young Stadtholder was his sister, had been as uncourteous as the rest, but they now united in receiving him and doing him honour. Breda already swarmed with English royalists, who flocked from every quarter to pay their court.

All this was observed in England with a complacency which sufficiently indicated that men's minds were made up to the restoration of the monarchy. The ultra-republican party alone, whose zeal never condescended to measure the chances against them, endeavoured to raise the soldiers to oppose the menaced catastrophe. The army had on all former occasions maintained the commonwealth. The emissaries of the republicans, therefore, spread themselves everywhere amongst the soldiers, warning them of the certainty of all their sacrifices, their labours, and their victories being in vain if they did not once more save the state. The old fire revived; the soldiers contemplated the loss of their arrears if the royalists came into power, the officers the loss of their lands and their commands. They began to express vehement discontent, and the officers flocked into the capital and called on Monk to take measures for the maintenance of the commonwealth. He professed to be bound to that object, though he had at the time in his pocket a commission from Charles constituting him lord-general of all the military in the three kingdoms. He ordered the officers to return to their posts, and put an oath, of obedience to the parliament to the privates—all who refused it being discharged.

Disappointed in this quarter, the republicans managed to effect the escape of Lambert, who bad been committed to the Tower, and who now appeared in Warwickshire, where he induced six troops of horse and some infantry to accept his command. On the approach of general Ingoldsby, however, who was sent against him, his troops deserted him, he was captured, and conducted back to the Tower with every indignity.

On the 25th of April the new parliament assembled; the royalists showed a decided majority, and though the presbyterian party managed to carry the election of Sir Harbottle Grimstone as speaker, the royalist tendency was overwhelming as to the main object. Ten of the peers assembled in their house, and elected the earl of Manchester speaker, and on beholding this the rest of the peers hurried up to town, and soon appeared a full house, excepting such peers as had served in the king's parliament at Oxford, or whose patents dated subsequently to the commencement of the civil war.

But all the interest was concentrated on the proceedings of the house of commons. On the 1st of May Sir John Grenville presented himself at the door of the house, and requested to speak with the lord-general. Monk went to him, and received, as a matter of which he knew nothing, a letter addressed to the speaker. Looking at the seal, and affecting to discover that it bore the royal arms, he ordered the guards to take care that the bearer did not escape. Grenville was speedily called in, and asked how he became possessed of this letter, and on replying that he brought it from the king, he was ordered into custody as a traitor. But here Monk interfered, saying that this was unnecessary; he perceived that he was a kinsman of his, and would be security for him. The letters were now opened, and proved to be really from the king, one addressed to the commons, another to the lords, a third to the lord mayor and corporation, and the fourth to Monk and Montague, lord-admirals. In the letter to the commons Charles informed them that, in the present unhappy circumstances of the nation, he recommended them to consider whether the only way to restore all to peace and prosperity was not to return to the ancient and time-honoured constitution of king, lords, and commons, under whom the kingdom had flourished so many ages. He