ted forces, and proclaim the king, he replied that,
in the present temper of his officers, it would prove a dangerous, a
pernicious, experiment. On the arrival of what he had long expected, an
invitation to Westminster, he resumed his march, and Fairfax, having
received the thanks of the parliament, disbanded[b] his insurrectionary
force.[1]

At York, the general had caned[c] an officer who charged him with the
design of restoring the kingly government; at Nottingham, he prevented with
difficulty the officers from signing an engagement to obey the parliament
in all things "except the bringing in of Charles Stuart;" and at Leicester,
he was compelled to suffer[d] a letter to be written in his name to the
petitioners from Devonshire, stating his opinion that the monarchy could
not be re-established, representing the danger of recalling the members
excluded in 1648, and inculcating the duty of obedience to the parliament
as it was then constituted.[2] Here he was met by two of the most active
members, Scot and Robinson, who had been commissioned to accompany him
during his journey, under the pretence of doing him honour, but, in
reality, to sound his disposition, and to act as spies on his conduct.
He received them with respect as the representatives of the sovereign
authority; and so flattered were they by his attentions, so duped by his
wariness, that they could not see through the veil which he spread over his
intentions.

[Footnote 1: Price, 749-753. Skinner, 196, 200, 205. Journals, Jan. 6.]

[Footnote 2: Ibid. 754. Kennet's Register, 32.]

[Sidenote a: A.D. 1660. Jan. 12.]
[Sidenote b: A.D. 1660. Jan. 16.]
[Sidenote c: A.D. 1660. Jan. 19.]
[Sidenote d: A.D. 1660. Jan. 23.]

As he advanced, he received at every stage addresses from boroughs, cities,
and counties, praying him to restore the excluded members, and to procure
a free and a full parliament. With much affectation of humility, Monk
referred the deputies to the two delegates of the supreme power, who
haughtily rebuked them for their officiousness, while the friends of
Monk laboured to keep alive their hopes by remote hints and obscure
predictions.[1]

To lull the jealousy of the parliament, Monk had taken with him from York
no more than five thousand men, a force considerably inferior to that which
was quartered in London and Westminster. But from St. Alban's he wrote[a]
to the speaker, requesting that five of the regiments in the capital
might be remo