As regarded Lambert, he did not dissemble his views; he sought to establish a military government, and to be himself the head of that government.
Monk, a rigid republican, some said, wished to maintain the Rump Parliament, that visible though degenerated representative of the republic.

Monk, artful and ambitious, said others, wished simply to make of this parliament, which he affected to protect, a solid step by which to mount the throne which Cromwell had left empty, but upon which he had never dared to take his seat.
Thus Lambert by persecuting the parliament, and Monk by declaring for it, had mutually proclaimed themselves enemies of each other.

Monk and Lambert, therefore, had at first thought of creating an army each for himself: Monk in Scotland, where were the Presbyterians and the royalists, that is to say, the malcontents; Lambert in London, where was found, as is always the case, the strongest opposition to the existing power which it had beneath its eyes.
Monk had pacified Scotland, he had there formed for himself an army, and found an asylum.

The one watched the other.

Monk knew that the day was not yet come, the day marked by the Lord for a great change; his sword, therefore, appeared glued to the sheath.