The staff-appointment which Monk held was that of acting lieutenant-general of the Ordnance. Cromwell would doubtless have preferred to see him sergeant-major-general--an appointment which in those days of amateur soldiering it was usually thought necessary to fill with a soldier of fortune--that as chief of the staff he might supply the technical shortcomings of the commander-in-chief. It was, however, already occupied by Lambert, whose training as a lawyer can hardly have qualified him for the proper discharge of its complex duties. Indeed more than once, in cases of extreme difficulty, we shall see that Monk had to take over his work, and thus intensify the antipathy which marked their relations from the first. It is impossible here to repeat the oft-told tale of the Dunbar campaign; which is the more to be regretted as Monk's share in it has never been done justice to. Cromwell had excellent reasons for not saying too much about him in despatches; and Hodgson, the other best known authority, being in Lambert's regiment, studiously keeps in the background the rival of his idolised colonel. Yet it is certain that no voice had so much weight with Cromwell as Monk's, and he was consulted at every point. Up to Dunbar, too, the lion's share of the active operations fell upon him. The artillery duels by which it was sought to goad Leslie into an engagement were under his direction, and it was he who took the castles of Colinton and Redhall during Cromwell's attempt to turn the Scotch position before Edinburgh.