ve even won respect for Your Majesty's person. Do but
give us our guarantees, and you will mount a securer throne, I think,
than any king has yet held in England.

_Charles:_
But Parliament--

_Ireton:_
No, sir. Parliament's demands are not our demands. To give them what
they ask will be to lose all opinion in the army. That would be fatal.

_Cromwell:_
Parliament and the army are at one in asking for constitutional
safeguards. All are agreed on that. But after that we are in dispute,
irreconcileably. They want a Presbyterian despotism. This land, sir, has
had enough of despotism, and we will not exchange one despotism for
another. We, the army, demand liberty of opinion. We respect law, we
stand, above all, for order and right behaviour, for an observance of
the rights of others. But we demand that a man's thought shall be his
own, that his faith shall be directed by none. We stand for Bible
freedom. And we, sir, are strong enough to make Parliament accept that,
but Parliament can never make us accept the tyranny of the Presbyters.
We are the new Independents, sir, the Independents of the spirit. We are
determined that henceforth in England no man shall suffer for his faith.

_Charles:_
I respect these ambitions.

_Ireton:_
Do but let us go to the army with that respect, and not a trooper but
will renew your power for you.

_Charles:_
A power a little cropped, eh, Mr. Ireton?

_Cromwell:_
No, sir, enlarged. You have ruled by interest and fear. You can go back
to rule by the affection of a free people. You have the qualities,
sir--why waste them?

_Charles:_
You persuade well. Honestly, I am sure.

_Cromwell:_
I could take all. I do not want it. I want to restore your fortune, to
give you back a regenerate kingship. Will you take it, sir? It is of
love I offer it, love of England, of your great office. And you should
adorn that inheritance. Men should be proud to call you King, sir.

_Ireton:_
We have that pride--and we have suffered.

_Cromwell:_
I can disabuse rumour about Scotland, I can persuade Parliament about
the Presbytery, I can convince the army of your good faith as to
tolerance, if you will but give me the word. Let us together make
Charles Rex the noblest name of Christendom.

_Charles:_
How shall I stand with the Episcopacy?

_Cromwell:_
All tyrannies must go together. We mislike no bishops save that they
stand by a tyrannous church. That we will destroy. It is there as I have
sa