The 1st of August was fixed on for a rising, and Charles hastened into Boulogne, to be ready to pass over into Wales or Cornwall. The duke of York was to lead over six hundred of the prince of Condé's veterans, and, crossing from Boulogne, land on the coast of Kent, whilst the duke of Gloucester was to proceed from Ostend with four thousand troops under marshal Marsin. Unfortunately for them, all their plans had been revealed to Thurloe by Sir Richard Willis, one of the king's sealed knot of seven trusted confidants. Convinced that from this treason the enterprise would fail, Charles sent circular letters to stop the rising. But these in many instances arrived too late. Many appeared in arms, and were fallen upon and routed or taken prisoners by the parliamentarians. Sir John Gore was arrested, the lady Mary Howard, daughter of the earl of Berkshire, and many other persons of distinction, were arrested on charges of high treason. In Cheshire Sir George Booth erected the royal standard, and took possession of Chester; but on learning the news of the king's deferring the enterprise, and that general Lambert was marching against them, he and his associates fled to Nantwich, where Lambert overtook and totally routed them. Colonel Morgan, with thirty of his men, fell on the field; the earl of Derby was taken disguised as a servant; Sir Thomas Middleton, who was eighty years old, fled to Chirk Castle, but soon surrendered; and Booth himself, disguised as a woman, and riding on a pillion, was betrayed and taken on the road to London, near Newton Pagnell. This unlucky outbreak and defeat threw the adherents of Charles abroad into despair. Montague, the admiral, who had been won over, and had brought his fleet to the mouth of the Thames to facilitate the passage of the king's troops, pretended that he had come for provisions, and, though he was suspected, he was allowed to return to his station. Charles himself, driven to despair, made a journey to Fuentarabia, where Mazarin and the Don Louis de Haro, the ministers of France and Spain, were engaged in a treaty, in the hope that, if it were concluded, he might obtain some support from them. But he was very coldly received; Mazarin would not even see him. In fact, his fortunes were apparently at the lowest ebb, but it was in reality only the dark hour before the dawn. The day of his fortune was at hand.
The parliament, on Lambert's victory, voted him thanks and one thousand pounds to purchase a jewel in memory of it; but Lambert distributed the money amongst his soldiers. The parliament resenting this, regarded it as intended to win the soldiers to his cause, that he might tread in Cromwell's steps, and make himself dictator. It was well known that he had entertained great hopes of being named his successor, and this suspicion was immediately confirmed by his officers, whilst on their march at Derby, signing a petition, and sending it up with a demand that Fleetwood should be made permanently commander-in-chief, and Lambert his lieutenant-general. No sooner did Haselrig see this petition, than he denounced it as an attempt to overturn the parliament, and moved the committal of Lambert and its author to the Tower. But Fleetwood repelled the charge by assuring them that Lambert, who was already in town when the petition was got up, knew nothing of it. The house, however, ordered all copies of the paper to be destroyed, and voted that any addition to the number of officers was needless, chargeable, and dangerous. At the same time they proceeded to conciliate the soldiers by advancing their pay, and, to discharge their arrears, on the 5th of October they raised the monthly assessment from thirty-five thousand pounds to one hundred thousand pounds.
Matters were, however, gone too far to be thus settled betwixt the parliament and the army. Haselrig, Scott, and their associates were of that class of sanguine republicans, who in their zeal think only of the principles they wish to establish, without calculating how far the country is prepared for them, and thus blindly rush on their own defeat. The Wallingford House military council prepared another paper called a petition, but being far more of a hostile communication, declaring that whoever cast scandalous imputations on the army should be brought to condign punishment. That was distinct enough, but Haselrig and his party had got the adhesion of three regiments, and relied on the promises of Monk in Scotland, and Ludlow in Ireland. On the 11th of October a vote was passed, declaring it high treason to levy any money on the people without consent of parliament, and, therefore, as all the existing taxes expired on the first day of the new year, Haselrig's party believed they had thus rendered the army wholly dependent on them. The very next day Haselrig moved and carried a motion that Desborough, Lambert, six colonels, and a major, were deprived of their commissions for signing the late petition. By another vote Fleetwood was deprived of the office of commander-in-chief, but made president of a board of seven members, for the management of the army. The blind zealots had witnessed to little purpose the history of late years, and the movements of armies. On the next day Lambert, with three thousand men, marched into Westminster, where he found the parliament house guarded by two regiments of foot, and four troops of horse. On his way he met the speaker, attended by a guard. He ordered the officer to dismount, and on refusing, according to Clarendon, pulled him from his horse, and sent Lenthall, the speaker, to his own house. The soldiers, on the two parties meeting, at once coalesced, and the Rump was once more dismissed. The officers at Wallingford House took upon themselves to annul Hazelrig's votes of the last three days, and establish a provisional committee of twenty-three members. There was a party amongst them for restoring Richard Cromwell, who came up from Hampshire escorted by three troops of horse; but this party was outvoted by a small majority, and he retired again.
Whilst these confused changes were taking place, eddies in the national affairs, but neither progress nor honour, the parliament having no power to restrain the army, nor the army any one man of a genius capable of controlling the rest, there was at least one commander who was silently and reservedly watching the course of events, resolved to go with the strongest side, if such a side could be found. This was general Monk. He was originally a royalist, and of a strongly royalist family. His elder brother had always been zealously devoted to the king, with the rest of his
