It was indeed fortunate that he had, for he was not yet to be left in peace. Haslerig immediately returned to the attack with a petition from a number of officers begging the lord-general to sign a declaration in favour of a Commonwealth and against a single person, and to get the Parliament to do the same. In the army lay the great danger to the country. Monk knew that the only chance of a settlement rested on his ability to keep it in hand till the great voice of the nation could speak its mind with overwhelming authority. Sensible of the gravity of the situation, he told the deputation he would give them an answer in Council of War on the morrow. He was confronted with a danger as great as any he had yet encountered, and he met it with his usual address. To the malcontents' arguments his spokesmen answered that their fears and hopes were alike groundless. The writs ran in the name of the Commonwealth, and every one who had served against the Parliament was disqualified. In any case no good could come of an attempt to put pressure on the House, for it would only dissolve itself and plunge the nation once more into anarchy. And they need not hope that the lord-general in that event would assume the government. They would merely be left a prey to the common enemy. Monk confirmed all his friends had said in the usual laconic speech with which he was wont to close such discussions. Still they were not satisfied. An officer continued to boldly argue that the qualifications were no safeguard, as the new Parliament alone had power to decide whether they had been observed. The argument was unanswerable. Monk abruptly cut it short by saying that the meetings of military councils to meddle with civil matters were subversive of discipline, and for the future he absolutely forbade them. The army was still tingling with the blows by which the terrible disciplinarian had broken it to his will. In various parts of the country where insubordination had shown itself new ones had been inflicted to remind them in whose grip they were. The new spirit of modern discipline which Monk had begotten was already arising, and Haslerig was once more baffled.