He paused a moment, then added, looking at the King intently and openly, and speaking with almost mournful seriousness—
"Your Majesty knows what the country must have—are you prepared to grant us these desires?"
Charles looked at him with a steadiness equal to his own.
"And if I say I am?" he replied. "What then?"
Both men were speaking with a directness usually foreign to them.
"Then," said Cromwell, "you may be in Whitehall within the week, sir. The army will escort you there."
Charles could hardly disguise the leap of exultation that shook his heart at this splendid chance, which, after being dangled before him so long, was at length definitely offered him.
"Sir," added the Lieutenant-General, "I make no disguise from you that there are many in the army not of my mind—it is rumoured that Your Majesty hath secret dealings with the Scots, the French, the Dutch——"
"If the English are loyal to me," replied Charles, "wherefore should I need foreign aid? These tales fly like thistledown before the first autumn wind—when we are in London, sir, I will listen to, and satisfy, all demands."