Monk
felt these affronts: discontent urged him to seek revenge; and, when he
understood that Booth was at the head of a considerable force, he dictated
a letter to the speaker, complaining of the proceedings of parliament, and
declaring that, as they had abandoned the real principles of the old cause,
they must not expect the support of his army. His object was to animate the
insurgents and embarrass their adversaries; but, on the very morning
on which the letter was to be submitted for signature to his principal
officers, the news of Lambert's victory arrived;[a] the dangerous
instrument was instantly destroyed, and the secret most religiously kept by
the few who had been privy to the intention of the general.[2]
To this abortive attempt Monk, notwithstanding his wariness, had been
stimulated by his brother, a clergyman of Cornwall, who visited him with a
message from Sir John Grenville by commission from Charles Stuart.
After the failure of Booth, the general dismissed him with a letter of
congratulation to the parliament, but without any answer to Grenville, and
under an oath to keep secret whatever he had learnt
[Footnote 1: Price, 712.]
[Footnote 2: Id. 711, 716, 721.]
[Sidenote a: A.D. 1659. August 23.]
respecting the past, or the intended projects of his brother.
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