Stuart dynasty

25-4 THE STUART DYNASTY,
" When it is, let it find you ready ; and in the
meantime have a care to keep yourself out of their
hands, who know the hurt you can do them in a
good conjuncture ; and can never hut suspect your
affection to he as I am confident it is, &c.
"Charles Rex."*
Now, the future Duke of Albemarle, although he
straightway despatched a copy of this letter to
Cromwell, retained the original as an heirloom,
which his son Christopher, the second Duke, pre-
served amongst the choicest treasures he pos-
sessed. f
It did not therefore need much popular persuasion
to win over this wily soldier of fortune when the
Royalist direction of popular opinion had become
evident. Those in authority were aware of this
tendency some time before the beginning of the
year 1660.
Chief among the reactionists must be named Lord
Fairfax, the hero of Naseby Field, and the Parlia-
mentary general who disputed with Cromwell the
title of Premier Captain of the forces lately arrayed
against Charles I.
Though the names of those who had suffered on
the Cavalier side, and received no adequate reward
when the King claimed his own again, are legion,
one may be pardoned for straying into the byways
* Givizot's ' Memorials of Monk,' translated and edited by Hon. J. Stuart
Wortley, 1838, pp. 88-86.
t Ibid., p. ST.