No one could declare that authoritatively, and every one might hope or believe as he liked.

The all but universal conviction, however, even among the Republicans, was that the Republic was doomed, and that, if the last and worst consummation in a return of Charles Stuart was to be prevented, it could only be by consenting to some single-person Government of a less fatal kind.

O that Richard's Protectorate could be restored! The thing was talked of by St.John and others, but the possibility was past.

But might not Monk himself be invested with the sovereignty?
Hasilrig and others actually went about Monk with the offer, imploring him to save his country by this last means; and the chance seemed so probable that the French ambassador, M.de Bordeaux, tried to ascertain through Clarges whether Monk's own inclinations ran that way.

Monk was too wary for either the Rumpers or the Ambassador.