No one now
could doubt that both officers and men were joined in one common league;
and that the link which bound them together was the "solemn engagement."[2]
Both looked upon that engagement as the charter of their rights and
liberties. No concession or intrigue, no partiality of friendship or
religion, could seduce them from the faith which they had sworn to it.
There were, indeed, a few seceders, particularly the captains, and several
of the lord general's life-guard; but after all, the men who yielded to
temptation amounted to a very inconsiderable number, in comparison with
the immense majority of those who with inviolable fidelity adhered to
the engagement, and, by their resolution and perseverance, enabled their
leaders to win for them a complete, and at the same time a bloodless
victory.
3. On the next day a deputation of freeholders from the county of Norfolk,
and soon afterwards similar deputations from the counties of Suffolk,
Essex, Herts, and Buckingham, waited with written addresses upon Fairfax.
They lamented that now, when the war with the king was concluded, peace had
not brought with it the blessings, the promise of which by the parliament
had induced them to submit to the evils and privations of war; a
disappointment that could be attributed only to the obstinacy with which
certain individuals clung to the emoluments of office
[Footnote 1: Rushworth, vi.
Pages:
236
237
238
239
240
241
242
243
244
245
246
247
248
249
250
251
252
253
254
255
256
257
258
259
260