utors in the Commons to
demand the dismissal of Fleetwood and Lambert from their commands. They
answered in October by driving the Parliament again from Westminster,
and by marching under Lambert to the north to meet the army under Monk.

[Sidenote: Return of Charles.]

Lambert however suffered himself to be lured into inaction by
negotiations, while Monk gathered a Convention at Edinburgh, and
strengthened himself with money and recruits. His attitude was enough to
rouse England to action. Portsmouth closed its gates against the
delegates of the soldiers. The fleet declared against them. So rapidly
did the tide of feeling rise throughout the country that the army at the
close of December was driven to undo their work by recalling the Rump.
But the concession only aided the force of resistance by showing the
weakness of the tyranny which England was resolute to throw off.
Lambert's men fell from him, and finding his path clear, Monk, without
revealing his purport, advanced rapidly to Coldstream, and crossed the
Border in the first days of 1660. His action broke the spell of terror
which had weighed upon the country. The cry of "A free Parliament" ran
like fire through the country. Not only Fairfax, who appeared in arms in
Yorkshire, but the ships on the Thames and the mob which thronged the
streets of London caught up the cry. Still steadily advancing, but
lavishing protestations of loyalty to the Rump while he accepted
petitions for a "Free Parliament," Monk on the third of February entered
unopposed. From the moment of his entry the restoration of the Stuarts
became inevitable. The army, resolute as it still remained for the
maintenance of "the cause," was deceived by Monk's declarations of
loyalty to it, and rendered powerless by his adroit dispersion of the
troops over the country. At the instigation of Ashley Cooper, those who
remained of the members who had been excluded from the House of Commons
in 1648 again forced their way into Parliament, and at once resolved on
a dissolution and the election of a new House of Commons. The
dissolution in March was followed by a last struggle of the army for its
old supremacy. Lambert escaped from the Tower and called his
fellow-soldiers to arms; but he was hotly pursued, overtaken, and routed
near Daventry; and on the twenty-fifth of April the new House, which
bears the name of the Convention, assembled at Westminster. It had
hardly taken the Solemn League and Covenant which