ready method of a military guard placed at the door of the House. Such an
assembly could have no respect from the nation, and was clearly only an
instrument by which the Council of the Army might exercise its power. "The
name of the Protector was no longer heard but in derision." [Footnote:
Richard Cromwell submitted himself, with abject and craven weakness, to
the will of this so-called Parliament. Nor did his younger brother, Henry,
the Lieutenant of Ireland, prove to have any larger share of his father's
courage.] But nothing was established to take the place of the authority
thus cast aside.

Once more, and in even greater degree, the hopes of the Royalists were
cast down. The restoration of the House which had destroyed the monarchy
seemed, in the words of Hyde, "to pull up all the hopes of the King by the
roots." In this despair the Duke of York was ready, at the persuasion of
those about him, to accept from the King of Spain the post of Admiral of
his Fleet. It offered, what there seemed but little likelihood of his
otherwise obtaining, a place of dignity and a means of livelihood. That it
necessarily involved a profession of the Roman Catholic religion was
sufficient to condemn it in the eyes of Hyde, as at once unprincipled and
impolitic. With the Duke's immediate advisers such considerations counted
for nothing.

Backed by the visible force of the army, of which Lambert, now restored to
his commission, was the virtual leader, the Rump Parliament showed a
temporary vigour. All Cavaliers were banished from London. Monk, who
commanded in Scotland, accepted the Parliament's authority. The fleet gave
in its allegiance, and the relations with foreign powers were for a brief
period renewed under the altered administration. The name of Parliament
sufficed for a time to carry conviction to the people at large that this
was the only means of preserving the Republican institutions which seemed