Meanwhile Lambert did not hasten to return to London. Parliament had solemnly testified its gratitude by sending him a jewel of great value; but the victorious general marched through the country, sounding the population as to their inclination, and even paying attentions to the vanquished Royalists. It was soon learnt that a petition, signed by his officers, had arrived in London. Parliament demanded it from Fleetwood, who brought it the same evening. It was a renewal of the wishes already expressed a week after the return of Parliament by the council-general of the army. The desire was that Fleetwood should become general-in-chief, and that Lambert should be his major-general. The House rejected the petition, simply commissioning Fleetwood to reprimand the officers; but the challenge was thrown down, the struggle had begun, and even in the midst of Parliament the army found allies. Vane, who was more pliant than Haslerig, and was determined to save the Republic at any price, had entered into relations with the officers and lent them his support. This noble but visionary character, carried away by his political and religious passions, had already sacrificed the people to the sectaries. He allowed himself in this instance to be impelled to sacrifice Parliament to the soldiers, always obtaining his support from lower down as his cause declined, and seeking his own safety in the abandonment of his principles and of his friends. [Image] Lambert. {303} The council of officers assembled together by Fleetwood did not insist upon the petition of the troops of Lambert, but he prepared another, an offensive compound of hypocrisy and arrogance. On the 5th of October, Desborough, accompanied by some of his comrades, carried the address to the bar of Parliament. The House, forewarned, received the petition without any sign of dissatisfaction, and promised to occupy itself with its consideration on the following Saturday, the 8th of October. At the approach of the crisis, and under the attentive eyes of the country, which was opposed to the two revolutionary factions, all felt unnerved, none would provoke the rupture nor accept the responsibility of it. On the morning of the 12th of October, the discussion had already begun when the House learnt that the petition of the officers was circulating in the army, accompanied by a letter of Lambert, Desborough, and seven other generals, asking for the support of the troops. Great indignation was aroused; Lambert and the other signitaries of the letters were immediately dismissed from their posts. Fleetwood, who was compromised, though he had not signed, lost the command-in-chief of the army, which was entrusted to seven commissioners, he being one of their number. Haslerig encamped around Parliament those regiments which were relied upon, and the troops, cantoned in the environs of London, were summoned in great haste. On the 13th of October, in the morning, Westminster and its neighborhood