and others. Monk was to be
reasoned with from all points of view. But, on the 3rd of November,
Lambert also set out for York, to join Colonel Robert Lilburne there,
and gather forces to block the north of England against the
possibility of Monk's invasion.[1]

[Footnote 1: Whitlocke, IV. 368-369; Phillips, 663; Skinner, 131,
140, and 142-143; Guizot, II. 27-29.]

Monk, on his part, when Clarges and Talbot arrived in Edinburgh (Nov.
2), and Clarges had held his first long private discourse with him,
was very willing to _seem_ to negotiate, and gave Clarges his
reasons. Though he had represented his Army as unanimously with him,
that was hardly the case. The re-modelling operations of the late
Rump had perturbed his Army considerably, displacing or degrading
officers he liked, and inserting or promoting officers he did not
want. Fortunately, most of the new officers had not yet come to
their posts, and the old ones were still available. But the
regiments, or parts of regiments, in all their dispersed stations, at
Edinburgh, Leith, Dalkeith. Stirling, Perth, Glasgow, Dundee,
Aberdeen, Ayr, Inverness, and the remoter Highland outposts, had to
be manipulated, weeded of oppositionists, and pulled gradually
together; and, as it turned out, there were about 140 oppositionists
among Monk's own approved officers of all ranks. To get rid of these,
and otherwise to shape the Army to his mind, would take six weeks at
least. Then, as he told Clarges, he should be ready. His total force
would consist of ten regiments of foot (his own, Talbot's, Wilkes's,
Read's, Daniel's, Fairfax's, and those now called Overton's,
Cobbet's, Sawrey's, and Smith's), with two regiments of horse (his
own and Twistleton's) and one of dragoons (that of the redoubted
Morgan, now absent in England). By recent careful economy, he had
L70,000 in the bank: his credit with the Scots was such that he could
have more on demand; he had but to give permission, and the Scots
themselves would flock in arms to his standard. He had resolved,
however, that the performance should be in substance wholly an
English one, and that the Scots should be involved in it but
indirectly and sparingly. Additional reasons for delay were furnished
by the fact that the sympathy with Monk which he knew to exist in
England and Ireland, had not yet had due development, In short, Monk
and Clarges agreed that it would be best to fall in with the offer of
negotiation, in order to gain time