As long as the question was before parliament, Cromwell bore himself in public as if he were unconcerned in the result; but his mind was secretly harassed by the reproaches of his friends and by the misgivings of his conscience.  He saw for the first time marshalled against him the men who had stood by him in his different fortunes, and whom he had bound to his interest by marriages and preferment.  At their head was Lambert, the commander of the army in England, the idol of the military, and second only to himself in authority.  Then came Desborough, his brother-in-law, the major-general in five counties, and Fleetwood, the husband of his daughter Bridget, and

[Footnote 1:  Journals, Jan. 19, Feb. 21, 23, 24, 25.  Thurloe, vi. 74, 78.  Whitelock, 665, 666.  Ludlow, ii. 128.  Burton’s Diary, iii. 160.]

[Sidenote a:  A.D. 1657.  March 25.] lord-deputy of Ireland.[1] Lambert, at a private meeting of officers, proposed to bring up five regiments of cavalry, and compel the house to confirm both the “instrument,” and the establishment of majors-general.  This bold counsel was approved; but the next morning his colleagues, having sought the Lord in prayer, resolved to postpone its execution till they had ascertained the real intention of the protector; and Lambert, warned by their indecision, took no longer any part in their meeting, but watched in silence the course of events.[2] The other two, on the contrary, persevered in the most active opposition; nor did they suffer themselves to be cajoled by the artifices of the protector, who talked in their hearing with contempt of the crown as a mere bauble, and of Pack and his supporters as children, whom it might be prudent to indulge with a “rattle."[3]

The marked opposition of these men had given energy to the proceedings of the inferior officers, who formed themselves into a permanent council under the very eyes of Cromwell, passed votes in disapprobation of the proposed alteration, and to the number of one hundred waited on him to acquaint him with their sentiments.[4] He replied,[a] that there was a time when they felt no objection to the title of king; for the army had offered it to him with the original instrument of government.  He had rejected it then, and had no greater love for it now.  He had always been

[Footnote 1:  Desborough and Fleetwood passed from the inns of court to the army.  The first married Anne, the protector’s sister; the second, Bridget his daughter, and the widow of Ireton.  Suspicious of his principles, Cromwell kept him in England, while Henry Cromwell, with the rank of major-general, held the government of Ireland.—­Noble, i. 103; ii. 243, 336, 338.]

[Footnote 2:  Clar.  Pap. iii. 333.]

[Footnote 3:  Ludlow, ii. 131.]

[Footnote 4:  Thurloe, vi. 93, 94, 101, 219.]