144

HISTORY OP ENGLAND,

CHAP.

I.

self the champion of the oppressed civil power, refused toacknowledge the usurped authority of the provisional govern-ment, and, at the head of seven thousand veterans, marchedinto England.

This step was the signal for a general explosion. Thepeople everywhere refused to pay taxes. The apprentices ofthe City assembled by thousands and clamoured for a freeParliament. The fleet sailed up the Thames, and declaredagainst the tyranny of the soldiers. The soldiers, no longerunder the control of one commanding mind, separated intofactions. Every regiment, afraid lest it should be left alonea mark for the vengeance of the oppressed nation, hastenedto make a separate peace. Lambert, who had hastened north-ward to encounter the army of Scotland, was abandoned byhis troops, and became a prisoner. During thirteen yearsthe civil power had, in every conflict, been compelled to yieldto the military power. The military power now humbled itselfbefore the civil power. The Rump, generally hated anddespised, but still the only body in the country which had anyshow of legal authority, returned again to the house fromwhich it had been twice ignominiously expelled.

In the mean time Monk was advancing towards London.Wherever he came, the gentry flocked round him, imploringhim to use his power for the purpose of restoring peace andliberty to the distracted nation. The General, cold-blooded,taciturn, zealous for no polity and for no religion, maintainedan impenetrable reserve. What were at this time his plans,and whether he had any plan, may well be doubted. Hisgreat object, apparently, was to keep himself, as long aspossible, free to choose between several lines of action. Such,indeed, is commonly the policy of men who are, like him,distinguished rather by wariness than by farsightedness. Itwas probably not till he had been some days in the capital thathe made up his mind. The cry of the whole people was for a