"What care I what man holdeth authority in England as long as he is powerless to do her wrong," replied Cromwell quietly. "Sir, all I say is that the time hath not come for peace save it be offered by His Majesty. Now is still the misty morning when all is doubtful to our eyes; but presently the sun shall rise above the vapours, and we shall behold very clearly the things we have to do. The Lord will strengthen our hands and show us the way, and His enemies shall go down like a tottering wall and a broken hedge."
The Earl moved about restlessly.
"You have great faith, Colonel Cromwell," he said, half sad, half vexed.
The fire had now sprung up strongly and threw a vivid light over the figure of the Puritan soldier standing thoughtfully on his homely hearth.
"Have I not need of faith?" he asked, in an exalted voice. "Aye, the shield of faith and the breastplate of righteousness and the sword of the spirit which is the Word of God! 'For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places!'"
The Earl made no reply; he was moved by the sincerity and force with which Colonel Cromwell spoke, but at the same time he was appalled by the prospect which a continuance of the war seemed to open up. He, like many others, was confused, bewildered, alarmed by the tremendous thing the Parliament had dared to do, and he wished to stop a crisis which was becoming immense and overwhelming; he wished to keep the King and the Church in their ancient places, and he felt more or less vaguely that men such as Oliver Cromwell were aiming at a new order of things altogether.
Colonel Cromwell, on the other hand, was not confused by the thought of any future issues; he saw one thing, and that plainly: in the present struggle between the King and the Parliament, the Parliament must be victorious; then the future government of England might be decided, not before.
He felt that there was no longer much use for men like my Lord Manchester, able and popular as he was: the stern fanatics among his own arquebusiers who spent their time in minute disputes and arguments on matters of religious discipline were more to the liking of Oliver Cromwell.
The Earl rose to take his leave.
"I am at my ancient lodging," he said. "May I expect you to-morrow morning? There are some military points I would discuss with you."