1655.] Messengers meet the king at Mons. 157

their shewing any respect to the king in his passage through their country, should incense Cromwell against them, whose friendship they yet seemed to have hope of.

His majesty intended to have made no stay, having received letters from the Hague, that his sister was already in her journey for the Spa. But, when he came to Mons, he found two gentlemen there, who came out of England with letters and instructions from those of his friends there who retained their old affections; and recovered new courage from the general discontent which possessed the kingdom, and which every day increased by the continual oppressions and tyranny they sustained. The taxes and impositions every day were augmented, and Cromwell, and his council, did greater acts of sovereignty than ever king and parliament had attempted. All gaols were full of such persons as contradicted their commands, and were suspected to wish well to the king; and there appeared such a rend among the officers of the army, that the protector was compelled to displace many of them, and to put more confiding men in their places. And as this remedy was very necessary to be applied for his security, so it proved of great reputation to him, even beyond his own hope, or at least his confidence. For the license of the common soldiers, manifested in their general and public discourses, censures, and reproaches of him, and his tyrannical proceedings, (which liberty he well knew was taken by many, that they might discover the affections and inclinations of other men, and for his service,) did not much affect him, or was not terrible to him otherwise than as they

158

The state of affairs relating

[B. XIV. were soldiers of this or that regiment, and under this or that captain, whose officers he knew well hated him, and who had their soldiers so much at their devotion, that they could lead them upon any enterprise and he knew well that this seditious spirit possessed many of the principal officers both of horse and foot, who hated him now, in the same proportion that they had heretofore loved him, above all the world. This loud distemper grew the more formidable to him, in that he did believe the fire was kindled and blown by Lambert, and that they were all conducted and inspired by his melancholic and undiscerned spirit, though yet all things were outwardly very fair between them. Upon this disquisition he saw hazard enough in attempting any reformation, (which the army thought he durst not undertake to do alone, and they feared not his proceeding by a council of war, where they knew they had many friends,) but apparent danger, and very probable ruin, if he deferred it. And so trusting only to, and depending upon his own stars, he cashiered ten or a dozen officers, though not of the highest command, and those whom he most apprehended, yet of those petulant and active humours, which made them for the present most useful to the others, and most pernicious to him. By this experiment he found the example wrought great effects upon many who were not touched by it, and that the men who had done so much mischief, being now reduced to a private condition, and like other particular men, did not only lose all their credit with the soldiers, but behaved themselves with much more wariness and reservation towards all other men. This gave him more ease

1655.]

to Cromwell and his army.

159

than he had before enjoyed, and raised his resolution how to proceed hereafter upon the like provocations, and gave him great credit and authority with those who had believed that many officers had a greater influence upon the army than himself.

It was very evident that he had some war in his purpose; for from the time that he had made a peace with the Dutch, he took greater care to increase his stores and magazines of arms and ammunition, and to build more ships than he had ever done before; and he had given order to make ready two great fleets in the winter, under officers who should have no dependence upon each other; and landmen were likewise appointed to be levied. Some principal officers amongst these made great professions of duty to the king; and made tender of their service to his majesty by these gentlemen. It was thought necessary to make a day's stay at Mons, to despatch those gentlemen; who were very well known, and worthy to be trusted. Such commissions were prepared for them, and such instructions, as were desired by those who employed them. And his majesty gave nothing so much in charge to the messengers, and to all his friends in England with whom he had correspondence, as, "that they should live quietly, without making any desperate or unreasonable attempt, or giving

advantage to those who watched them, to put "them into prison, and to ruin their estates and "families." He told them, "the vanity of imagin"ing that any insurrection could give any trouble "to so well a formed and disciplined army, and "the destruction that must attend such a rash and "uncounsellable attempt: that, as he would be

160

Affairs relating to the army.

[B. XIV.

"always ready to venture his own person with "them in any reasonable and well formed under"taking; so he would with patience attend God's

66

own time for such an opportunity; and, in the "mean time, he would sit still in such a convenient place as he should find willing to receive him; of "which he could yet make no judgment:" however, it was very necessary that such commissions should be in the hands of discreet and able men, in expectation of two contingencies, which might reasonably be expected. The one, such a schism in the army, as might divide it upon contrary interests into open contests, and declarations against each other, which could not but produce an equal schism in the parliament: the other, the death of Cromwell, which was conspired by the levellers, under several combinations. And if that fell out, it could hardly be imagined, that the army would remain united to the particular design of any single person, but that the parliament, which had been with so much violence turned out of doors by Cromwell, and which took itself to be perpetual, would quickly assemble again together, and take upon themselves the supreme government.

Lambert, who was unquestionably the second person in the command of the army, and was thought to be the first in their affections, had had no less hand than Cromwell himself in the odious dissolution of that parliament, and was principal in raising him to be protector under the instrument of government; and so could never reasonably hope to be trusted, and employed by them in the absolute command of an army that had already so notoriously rebelled against their masters. Then

1655.]

The king arrives at Spa.

161

Monk, who had the absolute command in Scotland, and was his rival already, under a mutual jealousy, would never submit to the government of Lambert, if he had no other title to it than his own presumption; and Harry Cromwell had made himself so popular in Ireland, that he would not, probably, be commanded by a man whom he knew to be his father's greatest enemy. These considerations had made that impression upon those in England who were the most wary and averse from any rash attempt, that they all wished that commissions, and all other necessary powers, might be granted by the king, and deposited in such good hands as had the courage to trust themselves with the keeping them, till such a conjuncture should fall out as is mentioned, and of which few men thought there was reason to despair.

The king having in this manner despatched those messengers, and settled the best way he could to correspond with his friends, continued his journey from Mons to Namur; where he had a pleasant passage by water to Liege; from whence, in five or six hours, he reached the Spa, the next day after the princess royal, his beloved sister, was come thither, and where they resolved to spend two or three months together; which they did, to their singular content and satisfaction. And for some time the joy of being out of France, where his majesty had enjoyed no other pleasure than being alive, and the delight of the company he was now in, suspended all thoughts of what place he was next to retire to. For as it could not be fit for his sister to stay longer from her own affairs in Holland, than the pretence of her health required,