recurring at
short intervals. Lambert seemed likely to be the first of these rulers;
but within a year Lambert might give place to Desborough, and Desborough
to Harrison. As often as the truncheon was transferred from one feeble
hand to another, the nation would be pillaged for the purpose of
bestowing a fresh donative on the troops. If the Presbyterians
obstinately stood aloof from the Royalists, the state was lost; and men
might well doubt whether, by the combined exertions of Presbyterians and
Royalists, it could be saved. For the dread of that invincible army was
on all the inhabitants of the island; and the Cavaliers, taught by
a hundred disastrous fields how little numbers can effect against
discipline, were even more completely cowed than the Roundheads.

While the soldiers remained united, all the plots and risings of the
malecontents were ineffectual. But a few days after the second expulsion
of the Rump, came tidings which gladdened the hearts of all who were
attached either to monarchy or to liberty: That mighty force which had,
during many years, acted as one man, and which, while so acting, had
been found irresistible, was at length divided against itself. The army
of Scotland had done good service to the Commonwealth, and was in
the highest state of efficiency. It had borne no part in the late
revolutions, and had seen them with indignation resembling the
indignation which the Roman legions posted on the Danube and the
Euphrates felt, when they learned that the empire had been put up to
sale by the Praetorian Guards. It was intolerable that certain regiments
should, merely because they happened to be quartered near Westminster,
take on themselves to make and unmake several governments in the course
of half a year. If it were fit that the state should be regulated by the
soldiers, those soldiers who upheld the English ascendency on the north
of the Tweed were as well entitled to a voice as those who garrisoned
the Tower of London. There appears to have been less fanaticism among
the troops stationed in Scotland than in any other part of the army; and
their general, George Monk, was himself the very opposite of a zealot.
He had at the commencement of the civil war, borne arms for the King,
had been made prisoner by the Roundheads, had then accepted a commission
from the Parliament, and, with very slender pretensions to saintship,
had raised himself to high commands by his courage and professional
skill. He h