But appearances were fallacious. The Restoration was inevitable, and with the Restoration, the Puritan Establishment, which had been the offspring of the Civil Wars, virtually expired. CHAPTER III. The Presbyterians were the principal instruments in Charles' restoration; and in this they acted as the exponents and instruments of the nation's will. It was not Monk who influenced the Presbyterians--the Presbyterians influenced Monk. Their leaders encouraged his bringing back the King, and conveyed to him that encouragement at a conference which they held with him in the City.[62] The part played by the Presbyterians in this transaction is admitted by members of the Royal family; and in the correspondence of the period a curtain is lifted up, disclosing Court secrets, and illustrating the manner in which the Presbyterians at that moment were overreached. When the Queen Dowager saw Lord Aubony she remarked, "My Lord, I hear you say that the King is to go to England, and that you are glad there is such a (way) laid open for him. Do not you know that the Presbyterians are those that are to invite him?" The nobleman answered that he did not care who they were, but only wished to see His Majesty restored to his own realm. "But the conditions," rejoined the Queen, "may be such as they would have pressed upon the King his father." "Madam," replied his lordship, "a king crowned, and in his own dominions has more reason to insist upon terms than an exiled prince that hath not been accepted by them. What would any one have him do, other than receive his kingdoms by what means soever they were given him? And some better way than this occurs not, what fault is to be found with that which cannot be mended?"[63] [Sidenote: 1660.]