yalists, consisting of the nobles and more considerable gentry,
being degraded from their authority and plundered of their property,
were inflamed with the highest resentment and indignation against
those ignoble adversaries who had reduced them to subjection. The
Presbyterians, whose credit had first supported the arms of the
parliament, were enraged to find that, by the treachery or superior
cunning of then associates, the fruits of all their successful labors
were ravished from them. The former party, from inclination and
principle, zealously attached themselves to the son of their unfortunate
monarch, whose memory they respected, and whose tragical death they
deplored. The latter cast their eye towards the same object; but they
had still many prejudices to overcome, many fears and jealousies to be
allayed, ere they could cordially entertain thoughts of restoring the
family which they had so grievously offended, and whose principles they
regarded with such violent abhorrence.

The only solid support of the republican independent faction, which,
though it formed so small a part of the nation, had violently usurped
the government of the whole, was a numerous army of near fifty thousand
men. But this army, formidable from its discipline and courage, as well
as its numbers, was actuated by a spirit that rendered it dangerous
to the assembly which had assumed the command over it. Accustomed
to indulge every chimera in politics, every frenzy in religion, the
soldiers knew little of the subordination of citizens, and had only
learned, from apparent necessity, some maxims of military obedience. And
while they still maintained, that all those enormous violations of law
and equity, of which they had been guilty, were justified by the success
with which providence had blessed them; they were ready to break out
into any new disorder, wherever they had the prospect of a like sanction
and authority.

What alone gave some stability to all these unsettled humors was the
great influence, both civil and military, acquired by Oliver Cromwell.
This man, suited to the age in which he lived, and to that alone, was
equally qualified to gain the affection and confidence of men, by what
was mean, vulgar, and ridiculous in his character, as to command their
obedience by what was great, daring, and enterprising. Familiar even
to buffoonery with the meanest sentinel, he never lost his authority:
transported to a degree of madness with religiou