mouth to his timid conqueror concerning the past;
but he admitted him very near to his person in his labors, took him with
him to several reconnoiterings, in such a way as to obtain that which he
evidently warmly desired,--a rehabilitation in the mind of D'Artagnan.
The latter conducted himself like a past-master in the art of flattery:
he admired all Monk's tactics, and the ordering of his camp; he joked
very pleasantly upon the circumvallations of Lambert's camp, who had,
he said, very uselessly given himself the trouble to inclose a camp
for twenty thousand men, whilst an acre of ground would have been quite
sufficient for the corporal and fifty guards who would perhaps remain
faithful to him.

Monk, immediately after his arrival, had accepted the proposition
made by Lambert the evening before, for an interview, and which
Monk's lieutenants had refused under the pretext that the general was
indisposed. This interview was neither long nor interesting: Lambert
demanded a profession of faith from his rival. The latter declared he
had no other opinion than that of the majority. Lambert asked if it
would not be more expedient to terminate the quarrel by an alliance
than by a battle. Monk hereupon demanded a week for consideration.
Now, Lambert could not refuse this: and Lambert, nevertheless, had come
saying that he should devour Monk's army. Therefore, at the end of the
interview, which Lambert's party watched with impatience, nothing was
decided--neither treaty nor battle--the rebel army, as M. d'Artagnan
had foreseen, began to prefer the good cause to the bad one, and the
parliament, rumpish as it was, to the pompous nothings of Lambert's
designs.

They remembered, likewise, the good feasts of London--the profusion of
ale and sherry with which the citizens of London paid their friends
the soldiers;--they looked with terror at the black war bread, at the
troubled waters of the Tweed,--too salt for the glass, not enough so for
the pot; and they said to themselves, "Are not the roast meats kept warm
for Monk in London?" From that time nothing was heard of but desertion
in Lambert's army. The soldiers allowed themselves to be drawn away by
the force of principles, which are, like discipline, the obligatory
tie in everybody constituted for any purpose. Monk defended the
parliament--Lambert attacked it. Monk had no more inclination to support
parliament than Lambert, but he had it inscribed on his standards, so
that all t