The roads were covered with crowds of people
anxious to testify their loyalty, while they gratified their curiosity. On
Blackheath he was received[c] by the army in battle array, and greeted with
acclamations as he passed through the ranks; in St. George's Fields the
lord mayor and aldermen invited him to partake of a splendid collation in a
tent prepared for the purpose; from London Bridge to Whitehall the houses
were hung with tapestry, and the streets lined by the trained bands, the
regulars, and the officers who had served under Charles I. The king was
preceded by troops of horsemen, to the amount of three thousand persons, in
splendid dresses, attended by trumpeters and footmen; then came the lord
mayor, carrying the naked sword, after him the lord-general and the duke of
Buckingham, and lastly the king himself, riding between his two brothers.
The cavalcade was closed by the general's life-guard, five regiments
[Footnote 1: Montague had long been in correspondence with the king, and
disapproved of the dissimulation of Monk, so far as to call him in private
a "thick-sculled fool;" but thought it necessary to flatter him, as he
could hinder the business.--Pepys, i. 69.]
[Sidenote a: A.D. 1660. May 23.]
[Sidenote b: A.
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