In the troops and companies of Fleetwood's old regiments, as many as a third of the soldiers, or in some cases a half, were leaving the ranks in consequence; but in Monk's own regiments from Scotland only two sturdy Republicans had stepped out.[1] [Footnote 1: Phillips, 698-699; Skinner, 286-289; Ludlow, 873-877; Wood's Fasti, II.

133-134; Whitlocke, IV.

407-409; M.de Bordeaux to Mazarin, Guizot, II.

415.] So sure was the Restoration of Charles now that the only difficulty was in restraining impatience and braggartism among the Royalists themselves.

The last argument of the Republican pamphleteers having been that the Royalists would be implacable after they had got back the king, and that nothing was to be then expected but the bloodiest and severest revenges upon all who had been concerned with the Commonwealth, and some of the younger Royalists having given colour to such representations by their wild utterances in private, there had been printed protests to the contrary by leading Royalists in London and in many of the counties.