indeed to lead to measures of precaution, but that certainty was

[Sidenote a: A.D. 1650. Jan. 8.]
[Sidenote b: A.D. 1650. April 2.]
[Sidenote c: A.D. 1650. May 30.]
[Sidenote d: A.D. 1650. June 4.]
[Sidenote e: A.D. 1650. June 12.]
[Sidenote f: A.D. 1650. June 14.]
[Sidenote g: A.D. 1650. June 24.]

required to justify actual invasion. No impression was made on his mind;
and, though Cromwell and his brother officers earnestly solicited him to
comply, "there was cause enough," says one of the deputation, "to believe
that they did not overmuch desire it."[1] The next day[a] another attempt
ended with as little success; the lord general alleging the plea of infirm
health and misboding conscience, sent back the last commission, and at the
request of the house, the former also; and the chief command of all the
forces raised, or to be raised by order of parliament, was conferred on
Oliver Cromwell.[b] Thus this adventurer obtained at the same time the
praise of moderation and the object of his ambition. Immediately he
left the capital for Scotland;[c] and Fairfax retired to his estate in
Yorkshire, where he lived with the privacy of a country gentleman, till he
once more drew the sword, not in support of the commonwealth, but in favour
of the king.[2]

To a spectator who considered the preparations of the two kingdoms, there
could be little doubt of the result. Cromwell passed the Tweed[d] at the
head of sixteen thousand men, most of them veterans, all habituated to
military discipline, before the raw levies of the Scots had quitted their
respective shires. By order of the Scottish parliament, the army had been