who bade him confer with Morrice as to the terms of the communication to
the King. Morrice fully instructed him as to the position. Monk's good
inclinations were to be conveyed to Charles, and he was to write in terms
which Monk could make public at the convenient time. The King was to
promise a very wide pardon for past offences, full liberty of conscience,
the payment of arrears of pay to the army, and the confirmation of all
sales of forfeited lands. Without such stipulations, the waverers, it was
thought, would be driven by despair to resist any scheme of restoration.
As a special charge, Monk bade Grenville insist that Charles should move
from Brussels to Breda. No trust could be placed in the fickle favour of
the Spanish Crown. Thus primed, Grenville sailed, early in April, with
Mordaunt, and arrived in due course at Brussels. The over subtlety of the
Spanish ministers made them believe that the Restoration, if accomplished
at all, would be brought about by the Levellers and Independents, who
would bring back the King with nothing more than a semblance of power. An
alliance with them alone, it was thought, would be the safest course for
Spain. Nothing could persuade Cardenas and Don Lewis de Haro that Charles
would be restored on conditions that virtually obliterated all the changes
that the civil war had brought about.

It was evident to Hyde that the conditions laid down by Monk could only be
complied with under very strict reservations. There was no wish to revive
old quarrels, or to deny any fair measure of indemnity, and just as little
did Charles desire to alienate the whole body of religious feeling outside
the Church. But it was not consistent with the honour of the King that the
indemnity should extend to the murderers of his father; nor was it
possible to leave order in the Church at the mercy of contending fanatics.
It was not difficult to devise a course which should make every reasonable
concession to the proposals of Monk, and yet not destroy the hopes of
those who looked forward with passionate earnestness to the restoration of