1648] The Second Civil War 205
to Edinburgh to treat with Argyle. " Give assurance," demanded Cromwell, " that you will not admit or suffer any that have been active in or consenting to the engagement against England, to be employed in any public place or trust whatsoever. This is the least security I can demand." There was nothing the rival faction would more willingly do, and by an Act of the Scottish Parliament " the Engagers," as Hamilton's partisans were called, were permanently excluded from political power.
Cromwell left three regiments in Scotland for a few weeks to secure the new government, and returned with the bulk of his army to England. Scarborough and Pontefract still remained to be captured, but the Second Civil War was over. Some of Cromwell's friends amongst the Independent leaders blamed his agreement with Argyle, and saw no security for England in the predominance of a bigoted Presbyterian faction at Edinburgh. They thought that Cromwell should either have exacted more substantial guarantees for future peace, or divided power between the two parties, so that they would balance each other, and be incapable of injuring England. Cromwell answered that the one hope of future peace between the two nations lay in creating a good understanding between English Independents and Scotch Presbyterians, and that he had taken the only course which could produce it.
"I desire from my heart — I have prayed for — I have waited for the day to see — union and right understanding between the godly people — Scots, English, Jews,