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 mobs 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
February 3d entered London 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 April 25th the new House, which bears the name of
the "Convention," assembled at Westminster. It had hardly taken the
solemn "league and covenant" which showed its Presbyterian temper, and
its leaders had only begun to draw up terms on which the King's
restoration might be assented to, when they found that Monk was in
negotiation with the exiled court.

All exaction of terms was now impossible; a declaration from Breda, in
which Charles promised a general pardon, religious toleration, and
satisfaction to the army, was received with a burst of national
enthusiasm; and the old constitution was restored by a solemn vote of
the convention, "that according to the ancient and fundamental laws of
this kingdom, the government is, and ought to be, by King, Lords, and
Commons." The King was at once invited to hasten to his realm; and on
May 25th Charles landed at Dover, and made his way amid the shouts of a
great multitude to Whitehall. "It is my own fault," laughed the new King
with characteristic irony, "that I had not come back sooner; for I find
nobody who does not tell me he has always longed f