"The Edomites, the Ammonites, and the Moabites are scattered," said Lambert, "but who is now to reign in Israel?"
"We whom God hath called," replied Cromwell.
And so they came to the headquarters of the army at Whitehall, the palace of the late King; and the second revolution was complete.
CHAPTER IV
"THE NEW ORDER"
The rule of the Lord-General and his council of officers, governing in a form parliamentary, called "the little Parliament" was a failure complete and absolute.
Soldiers could not do the work of lawyers, nor the veterans of Naseby, Preston, Dunbar, and Worcester rule England as well as they had defended her. Such measures as they carried were totally against the principles and policy of their leader, who passed from rapt enthusiasm to sad disillusion, and finally to gloomy anger again; the military saints, chosen of the Lord as they were, and the very cream of the elect, could not govern England.
In December 1653, after many consultations with his councils, Cromwell, who hesitated to break up another Parliament by force, persuaded the officers to hand back their powers to him from whom they had received them.
The soldiers, though fanatic, narrow, and intolerant, were neither self-seeking nor unreasonable; they saw that they were unable to govern the country, and that there was only one man who could undertake the task that had been too much for them.