From Coldstream, as soon as he heard the Rump was sitting, he had written to the Speaker for orders. As yet none had arrived, and he determined, in pursuance of his new authority as commander-in-chief, to advance to York. There he arrived on the 11th, to find no trace of Fairfax or his party. They had disappeared, and the city was in the hands of troops who had gone over to the Parliament. The rest of Lambert's deserters had joined the Yorkshire gentlemen, but had sent to the right-about every Cavalier that had shown himself at the rendezvous. Buckingham himself, Fairfax's own son-in-law, had had to go in spite of his irreproachable professions. York had refused to receive any of Fairfax's partisans. Lord Fairfax himself, sensible of a fiasco, had made a fit of the gout an excuse for retiring to his own house. However, on Monk's arrival he entered the city in state to see him. With every argument he urged him to stay where he was and declare for the King. Monk of course refused, but he could not prevent his association with Fairfax arousing the old suspicions. No means was omitted to clear himself. An officer was heard to say that Monk would at last bring in Charles Stuart, and the old general, in a fit of exasperation, publicly gave him a sound thrashing for his pains. Still these suspicions were not without their value. The Rump shared them. They dare not leave him with Fairfax; they dare not order him to retreat. There was no course but to tell him to advance, and Monk obeyed with alacrity. Sending Morgan back to keep Scotland quiet, and leaving Colonel Fairfax to occupy York, he marched on the 16th with an army increased, by a careful selection from Lambert's deserters, to nearly six thousand men. His progress was a triumph. The peasantry thronged to the highway to stare at the deliverer as he passed. The church-bells rang. The gentry came in troops with addresses, urging on him the necessity of a full Parliament. Silent as a sphinx, the harassed soldier rode on through it all, while all the world watched him. Every eye, every ear, was strained for a sign; and a safe platitude or two about his country's welfare and the duty of his place was all that could be dragged from his impenetrable reserve.