Since August 1656, by the Protector's orders, _three_ had been a sufficient quorum of the Council.

Monk, of course, was the real Vice-Protector.

Scotland had become his home.

He had lived for some years in the same house at Dalkeith, "pleasantly seated in the midst of a park," occupying all his spare time "with the pleasures of planting and husbandry"; he had buried his second son, an infant, in a chapel near; and to all appearance he might expect to spend the rest of his days where he was, a wealthy English soldier-farmer naturalized among the Scots, acquiring estates among them, and keeping them under quiet command.[4] [Footnote 1: Baillie, III, 836-874 and 577-582; Blair's Life, 333-334; Council Order Books, Feb.

12 and March 5, 1656-7, and Sept.
18, 1657; and a pamphlet published in London in July 1659 with the title "_The Hammer of Persecution, or the Mystery of Iniquity in the Persecution of many good people in Scotland under the Government of Oliver, late Lord Protector, and continued by others of the same spirit, disclosed with the Remedies thereof, by Robt.