n the district that had so happily taken
the initiative.[1]

[Footnote 1: Clarendon, 869-871; Whitlocke, IV. 355-356; Phillips,
649-652 (where Booth's Proclamation is given).]

After some hesitations among the Rumpers in London on the question
what officer should be sent against Sir George Booth, it was resolved
to send Lambert. He set out on the 6th of August, with three
regiments of horse, three of foot, one of dragoons, and a train of
artillery; and orders were sent for other forces to join him on his
march, and for bringing two regiments from Ireland and three from
Flanders. Communications were to be kept up between Lambert and the
Council at Westminster by messengers twice or thrice every day. Such
incessant communication was very necessary. Over England, Scotland,
and Ireland, the talk was of Sir George Booth's Insurrection, with
much exaggeration of its dimensions, and speculation as to its
chances. Old and new Royalists everywhere, and men who had not yet
declared themselves Royalists, were waiting for news that might
determine their course.--Above all, Monk at Dalkeith was looking
southwards with interest, and timing the arrival of each post-bag In
Edinburgh. He had then a visitor at Dalkeith, in the person of his
brother, the Rev. Mr. Nicholas Monk, minister of Kilhampton parish in
Cornwall, This gentleman had come to take home his daughter, who had
been living with Monk, a suitable husband having now been found for
her in England. But he had come on a little piece of business
besides. His Cornish living had been given him, about a year before,
by Sir John Greenville; and Sir John had thought him the very man to
be employed in bringing round Monk to the King's interest. He had,
accordingly, gone from Cornwall to London, had seen Greenville there
and received instructions, and had also consulted Dr. Thomas Clarges,
Monk's brother-in-law, and his trusty agent in London, Clarges,
without committing himself on the special subject of the mission,
easily procured a passage to Scotland by sea for Mr. Nicholas Monk.
He sailed for Leith, Aug. 5. He had not run the risk of carrying with
him the King's letters to Monk and Greenville; but he had got their
substance by heart. And so, having first sounded Monk's domestic
chaplain, Dr. John Price, who was of Royalist proclivities too, he
had opened to Monk the fact that his sole purpose In coming was not
to bring back his daughter. He told him of the King's commission to