No sooner had Monk heard of Lambert's _coup d'etat_ than he repeated his former determination most emphatically, both by energetic procedure on his own Scottish ground and by letters to all the four winds.

"I am resolved, by the grace and assistance of God, as a true Englishman," he wrote to Speaker Lenthall from Edinburgh October 20, "to stand to and assert the liberty and authority of Parliament; and the Army here, praised be God, is very courageous and unanimous." There were letters to the same effect to Fleetwood and Lambert, to Ludlow and his substitutes in Ireland, to the commanders of the Fleet, and to many private persons.

Colonel Gobbet was not allowed to enter Scotland, but was seized at Berwick and put in prison.

In short, before October 28, when the new Committee of Safety met for the first time in Whitehall, it was clear that Monk had constituted himself the antagonist-in-chief of their government, and the armed champion of the dismissed Rump.

Hasilrig, Scott, Neville, and their comrades, were in exultation accordingly.[1] [Footnote 1: Whitlocke, IV.