among themselves, but
abide the decision of the coming Parliament. Many who could not have
been brought to declare for Charles Stuart directly could save their
consciences by signing a document thus conditionally in his interest;
and the device of Clarges was most successful. On the 9th of April a
copy of the engagement signed by a large number of officers in or
near London was in Monk's hands, and copies were out in England,
Scotland, and Ireland, for additional signatures. As to the response
from Scotland there could be little doubt. Morgan, the
commander-in-chief in Scotland, had already reported the complete
submission of the Army there to the order established by the
Parliament of the Secluded Members. Only a single captain had been
refractory, and he far away in the Orkneys. From Ireland, where Coote
and Broghill were now managing, the report was nearly as good.
Altogether, by the 9th of April, Monk could regard the Republicanism
of the Army as but the stunned and paralysed belief of so many
thousands of individual red-coats.--It was no otherwise with the
Navy. Moored with his fleet in the Thames, or cruising with it
beyond, Montague could assure Pepys in private that he knew most of
his captains to be Republicans, and that he was not sure even of the
captain of his own ship; and, studying a certain list which Montague
had given him, Pepys could observe that the captains Montague was
most anxious about were all or nearly all of the Anabaptist
persuasion. Still there was no sign of concerted mutiny; and it was a
great thing at such a time that Vice-Admiral Lawson, Montague's
second in command, and the pre-eminent Republican of the whole Navy,
had shown an example of obedience.[1]

[Footnote 1: Phillips, 694-698; Skinner, 263-265; Ludlow, 865-873;
Whitlocke, IV. 405-406; Pepys's Diary, March 28-April 9.]

There was to be one dying flash for the Republic after all. Lambert
had escaped from the Tower. It was on the night of April 9, the very
day on which Monk was congratulating himself on the engagement of
obedience signed by so many of his officers. For some days no one
knew where the fugitive had gone, and Monk and the Council of State
were in consternation. Proclamations against him were out, forbidding
any to harbour him, and offering a reward for his capture. Meanwhile
emissaries from Lambert were also out in all directions, to rouse his
friends and bring them to a place of rendezvous in Northamptonshire.
One