their
sovereign, totally neglected the supplying of Ireland, and allowed Jones
and the forces in Dublin to remain in the utmost weakness and necessity.
The lord lieutenant, though surrounded with difficulties, neglected not
the favorable opportunity of promoting the royal cause. Having at
last assembled an army of sixteen thousand men, he advanced upon the
parliamentary garrisons. Dundalk, where Monk commanded, was delivered up
by the troops, who mutinied against their governor. Tredah, Neury, and
other forts, were taken. Dublin was threatened with a siege; and the
affairs of the lieutenant appeared in so prosperous a condition, that
the young king entertained thoughts of coming in person into Ireland.

When the English commonwealth was brought to some tolerable settlement,
men began to cast their eyes towards the neighboring island. During the
contest of the two parties, the government of Ireland had remained a
great object of intrigue; and the Presbyterians endeavored to obtain
the lieutenancy for Waller, the Independents for Lambert. After the
execution of the king, Cromwell himself began to aspire to a command,
where so much glory, he saw, might be won, and so much authority
acquired. In his absence, he took care to have his name proposed to the
council of state; and both friends and enemies concurred immediately
to vote him into that important office: the former suspected, that
the matter had not been proposed merely by chance, without his own
concurrence; the latter desired to remove him to a distance, and hoped,
during his absence, to gain the ascendant over Fairfax, whom he had so
long blinded by his hypocritical professions. Cromwell himself, when
informed of his election, feigned surprise, and pretended at first to
hesitate with regard to the acceptance of the command. And Lambert,
either deceived by his dissimulation, or, in his turn, feigning to
be deceived, still continued, notwithstanding this disappointment his
friendship and connections with Cromwell.

The new lieutenant immediately applied himself with his wonted vigilance
to make preparations for his expedition. Many disorders in England it
behoved him previously to compose. All places were full of danger and
inquietude. Though men, astonished with the successes of the army,
remained in seeming tranquillity, symptoms of the greatest discontent
every where appeared. The English, long accustomed to a mild
administration, and unacquainted with dissimula