the
Lambert Brigade Petition of the preceding month, but for that
predeclaration of his hostility. It had been suggested, indeed, that
such an honour might pacify him; but it had been thought best to wait
for farther evidences of his state of mind, and merely to despatch
Colonel Cobbet to Scotland to give explanations to Monk himself and
to probe also the feelings of his officers and soldiers.--They had
not to wait long. No sooner had Monk heard of Lambert's _coup
d'etat_ than he repeated his former determination most
emphatically, both by energetic procedure on his own Scottish ground
and by letters to all the four winds. "I am resolved, by the grace
and assistance of God, as a true Englishman," he wrote to Speaker
Lenthall from Edinburgh October 20, "to stand to and assert the
liberty and authority of Parliament; and the Army here, praised be
God, is very courageous and unanimous." There were letters to the
same effect to Fleetwood and Lambert, to Ludlow and his substitutes
in Ireland, to the commanders of the Fleet, and to many private
persons. Colonel Gobbet was not allowed to enter Scotland, but was
seized at Berwick and put in prison. In short, before October 28,
when the new Committee of Safety met for the first time in Whitehall,
it was clear that Monk had constituted himself the
antagonist-in-chief of their government, and the armed champion of
the dismissed Rump. Hasilrig, Scott, Neville, and their comrades,
were in exultation accordingly.[1]

[Footnote 1: Whitlocke, IV. 366-367; Ludlow, 710-712 and 728-729;
Phillips, 663-666; Skinner's Life of Monk, 117-128; Guizot, II.
18-22.]

Two resolutions were immediately taken by the Committee of Safety. It
was resolved to attempt even then a negotiation with Monk; and it was
resolved to send Lambert north with a large force to prevent Monk's
march into England if the negotiation should fail. On the night of
the 28th of October, Monk's brother-in-law Dr. Clarges, and Colonel
Talbot, one of Monk's favourite officers, then in London, were sent
for by the Committee, and asked to undertake the mission of peace.
They willingly consented, and set out on the 29th, to be followed
within a few days by six other missionaries for the same
purpose--Colonels Whalley and Goffe for the Wallingford-House
officers, a Mr. Dean specially for Fleetwood, and three Independent
ministers, Caryl, Barker, and Hammond, on a religious account. There
were letters in plenty also from Fleetwood