they demanded, that a period should be put
to the present parliament, the event for which he most ardently longed.

* Warwick, p. 303. Parl. Hist. vol. xvi. p. 40. Clarendon,
vol. *v p. 50.

His conjunction, too, seemed more natural with the generals, than with
that usurping assembly who had so long assumed the entire sovereignty
of the state, and who had declared their resolution still to continue
masters. By gratifying a few persons with titles and preferments, he
might draw over, he hoped, the whole military power, and in an instant
reinstate himself in his civil authority. To Ireton he offered the
lieutenancy of Ireland; to Cromwell the garter, the title of earl of
Essex, and the command of the army. Negotiations to this purpose were
secretly conducted. Cromwell pretended to hearken to them and was well
pleased to keep the door open for an accommodation, if the course of
events should at any time render it necessary. And the king, who had no
suspicion that one born a private gentleman could entertain the daring
ambition of seizing a sceptre, transmitted through a long line of
monarchs, indulged hopes that he would at last embrace a measure
which, by all the motives of duty, interest, and safety, seemed to be
recommended to him.

While Cromwell allured the king by these expectations, he still
continued his scheme of reducing the parliament to subjection, and
depriving them of all means of resistance. To gratify the army, the
parliament invested Fairfax with the title of general-in-chief of all
the forces in England and Ireland; and intrusted the whole military
authority to a person who, though well inclined to their service, was no
longer at his own disposal.

They voted, that the troops which, in obedience to them had enlisted for
Ireland, and deserted the rebellious army, should be disbanded, or, in
other words, be punished for their fidelity. The forces in the north,
under Pointz, had already mutinied against their general, and had
entered into an association with that body of the army which was
so successfully employed in exalting the military above the civil
authority.[*]

That no resource might remain to the parliament, it was demanded, that
the militia of London should be changed, the Presbyterian commissioners
displaced, and the command restored to those who, during the course of
the war, had constantly exercised it. The parliament even complied with
so violent a demand, and passed a vote in o