This interview having sufficiently
apprized him of the designs of the Rump-party, he resolved to keep Lord
Bellingham in safe custody, to remove their adherents from every office
of trust, and to prevent all attempts to appeal to the people by calling
a free Parliament. And as he intended that his campaign in Ireland
should not be protracted by any compunctious visitings of mercy, but
that it should more resemble the sweeping hurricane that devastates a
province, than the purifying wind that renovates a corrupted atmosphere,
he trusted that his habitual celerity, and the vigilance and fidelity of
the host of spies he so liberally paid, would enable him to return to
England before any measures could be taken to sap the dominion whose
foundations were laid in treachery and treason.
The progress of his bloody standard in Ireland was interrupted by the
young King's appearance in Scotland. Cromwell transported himself to
that kingdom with incredible dispatch, and assumed the command of that
division of the army which had been nominally retained by Fairfax, who,
tired of his guilty employment, had, since the murder of the King, been
evidently indisposed to the service, and now peremptorily refused to
continue to act as general.
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