cutioner that he would first lay down his head to try the fitness of the block, and take it up again, before he laid it down for good and all; and so he did and before he laid it down again, he told the executioner that he would give him warning when to strike, by stretching forth both his hands; and then, having laid down his neck on the block, stretching out his hands, the executioner struck off his head at one blow, then took up the head in his hand, and shewed it to all the people, and said, ' God save the king!'"

"Thus," wrote Laud, on recovering his usual serenity, after that overwhelming farewell, sufficiently to proceed with the task which solaced his imprisonment until his own turn came, "thus ended the wisest, the stoutest, and every way the ablest subject that this nation had bred these many years." The excellent Evelyn also says, under date of that sanguinary 12th of May, 1641, “ I beheld on Tower Hill the fatal stroke which severed the wisest head in England from the shoulders of the Earl of Strafford; whose crime coming under the cognisance of no human law, a new one was made, not to be a precedent, but his destruction to such exorbitancy were things arrived.” These were the sentiments of persons of humanity and reflection. But the populace, though awed into decency at the scaffold, celebrated their triumphfor such they were taught to esteem it-with shouts of exultation as they returned through the City.

CHAPTER IV.

THE PARLIAMENTARY CRISIS.

THE rapidity with which the great movement advanced, after Strafford's fall, was in proportion to the magnitude of the impediment removed. It was now easy for the triumphant party to sweep away all real abuses. As long as their measures spared the episcopal order, they were submissively adopted by the Lords, and assented to by the king without much hesitation. This, however, was the very point toward which the main force of the onset was directed.

Of the leaders, indeed, in both houses, several, who adopted the language of religion from policy, or the fashion of the time, would have been content to press no farther upon the power of the hierarchy, than they might have done with the concurrence of some among the bench of bishops themselves. Williams had consented to preside in the committee of religion; a scheme of "moderate Episcopacy," designed to assimilate the episcopalian and presbyterian systems on a footing of mutual compromise, was sanctioned by Usher.

But moderation was no longer in their choice. The Church's overthrow was the condition of that

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support, in which lay their chief strength: the patriots, therefore, dared neglect no step tending to this object. "Delinquent" clergymen were daily deprived. vote passed the Commons, that bishops should no longer sit in parliament: it was presently followed by a bill to deprive the whole body of the clergy of all temporal functions; and this, again, by the wellknown presentation of a bill for the abolition of Episcopacy, root and branch, brought in by the unhappy Sir Edward Dering. And though the peers withheld their concurrence, and had the courage to defend the ecclesiastical constitution a few months longer, yet it was evident they were gradually yielding to the pressure. On minor points they at once gave way; and already the personal treatment of the lords spiritual, in their own house of parliament, was disrespectful, if not contemptuous.

The king had engaged to be present in Scotland at the approaching session of the parliament of that kingdom. The fulfilment of this pledge was looked forward to by the patriots with alarm. Pleading the unsettled state of the public affairs, they requested a regent to be named during his majesty's absence: he consented only to appoint, for that period, the Earl of Essex to be commander-in-chief south of the Trent. On various pretexts, alleged by the houses, he from time to time delayed his journey; but at length set out from London, in the beginning of August. The parliament, not unreasonably suspicious of his purposes, despatched after him a committee, with Hampden at their head, to watch his steps and thwart his negoti

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ations. A fortnight later, the two houses, having each appointed a committee, empowered for all exigencies during the recess, voted an adjournment from September 9th to October 20th. Pym, whose influence and popularity were at this time unbounded, was named chairman of the Commons' committee; and had, in fact, management of both.

The king's determination to conciliate Scotland, at all bazards, was early displayed. In passing through the head-quarters of the armies, at that time in the act of disbanding, he made no stay at York, but accepted an entertainment at Newcastle from Lesley, whom he created Earl of Leven. To the Covenanters he made ruinous concessions, humouring them at the same time in matters the least palatable to his tastes he stripped the crown of its most valuable prerogatives; gave up Episcopacy to destruction; nonfinated the leading ministers of the Kirk to be his chaplains, and regularly attended the Presbyterian service. But all his concessions were now regarded by that rapacious race as the plunder of the vanquished; while in England both his attempts to win the Scots, and his efforts to search out the treasonable intrigues of the preceding year (which was quickly discovered to be a second, but scarcely less anxious object), served alike to exasperate the existing jealousy.

Before Charles's return, intelligence came from Ireland of the frightful rebellion in that country. Transferred from the able government of Strafford to feebler hands but harsher treatment; encouraged by

the successful issue of the Scotch insurrection, and still more by those domestic feuds which occupied their masters; the native Irish conspired to throw off the yoke, and to massacre all the English and Protestants in the island. Unfortunately facilities were afforded for the execution of this dreadful project by the parliament's refusal, contrary to the king's desire, to allow the disbanded Irish soldiers to enter into foreign service. The plan of the insurrection had been in agitation as early as the month of March, and, by degrees, the whole Roman Catholic population were drawn into it; but so well had the terrible secret been kept, that it was not till the night previous to the day fixed for its execution that the government received the least intimation of the impending blow. Intelligence of it reached the lords justices, Borlase and Parsons, scarcely in time to secure the Castle of Dublin; in most other places the design was carried into effect, amid scenes of cruelty and bloodshed almost too horrible for belief. The rebels had the audacity to assert that they had risen in defence of the royal cause: they even exhibited a forged commission from the king. That Charles connived at, if he did not instigate, this work of blood, though now not, indeed, without manifest reluctance given up, even by those who are most hostile to his fame, was too convenient, and, at the time, too plausible a falsehood, not to meet with countenance from the parliament.

A common danger should have reconciled the contending parties. But to the patriots all dangers