sound of the bells which had rung out when Monk came back to the city as a
friend, and had pronounced for a free Parliament. He had crossed the river
and viewed the scene of rejoicing in Cheapside; had seen the bonfires, and
heard the health of the King toasted. He had joined in open proposals for
the restoration of the rightful sovereign; and straight from those
unwonted experiences he had taken post for Dover and crossed to Ostend.

It was hard to say how much comfort could be drawn from this report. The
messenger had brought a copy of Monk's published declaration; but that
contained no word about the restoration of the King. Even were his friends
encouraged to action, it was idle to hope for success in arms without
foreign aid; and Charles and Hyde knew how small were the chances of such
aid. Were the unpurged Long Parliament restored, what better could be
hoped from them than that they would open negotiations upon the basis of
the old treaty at Newport, which the late King "had yielded to with much
less cheerfulness than he had walked to the scaffold"?

The portents, however, continued to be favourable. Addresses were received
from many whose favour for the royal cause had, hitherto, been
unsuspected, and whose new-found loyalty might well be accepted as an
indication of a change in the temper of the nation. Patience was still the
watchword urged by Hyde. The issues were ripening, and even now he may
have anticipated that bloodless restoration towards which the current was
quickly carrying the people.

A new danger suddenly arose, by the escape of Lambert from the Tower in
April. His influence in the army was unrivalled, and he alone could raise
a counterpoise to the power of Monk. So long as his rival was at large,
Monk could not, except at imminent risk, have declared himself more
decidedly. To do so would have aroused opposition that would have