the king, that during his absence in Scotland a design had been actually on foot to impeach his royal consort. A message from the Lords acquainted them that Herbert, the attorney-general, had appeared at the bar of that house, and accused of high treason the Lord Kimbolton, and five members of the house of Commons - Hollis, Halerigg, Pym, Hampden, and Strode. A serjeant-at-arms now presenting himself demanded, in the name of the king, to have the five members given up to his custody: at the same instant, the house learned that officers were engaged in sealing up the studies and trunks of the accused. It was a moment for the display of that decision, in the exercise of which the great leaders of the Commons delighted. They instantly sent the Speaker's warrant, to break the seals, and apprehend the persons by whom they were affixed; ordered, at the same time, that any members upon whom similar seizures were attempted, should stand upon their defence; despatched a deputation to the king with the reply, that their answer to a charge so serious required grave consideration; and, desiring the accused members to attend in their places the next morning, adjourned the house.

In that strangely varied sphere, the court of the most moral of princes, the fairest star was the beautiful Dowager-Countess of Carlisle. To this lady's smiles, brilliant talents and a great part in the drama of life were indispensable, but effectual, passports. What wonder if her favour dwelt, for a season, on Strafford? But Strafford perished: and it is hard

to say, whether disgust points rather to the patriot or the courtesan, whether delicacy or moral principle suffer the more grievous wound, when we learn that, immediately afterwards, the contrasted person, but hardly less intellectual brow of his remorseless prosecutor, stained as it was with the reeking blood of the great minister, possessed charms for the Countess of Carlisle.

No marvel, if so many of Charles's schemes proved abortive, when the most important of his affairs were in the power of such a woman! The afternoon of the following day had arrived, and each of the five accused members had spoken in his place against the accusation, when Pym received a private intimation from the countess that his majesty in person was coming to the house to apprehend them. A gentleman who had hastened from Whitehall entering, and confirming this intelligence, with the addition that he had actually beheld his majesty on the way, Pym and his friends withdrew; the house, meantime, waiting the result in silence.

All that followed is well known: the king's entrance with his nephew, the prince palatine; the stillness which prevailed; his majesty's looking round for Pym and his friends; his seating himself in the Speaker's chair; his speech to the house, in which he assured them that no king of England had ever held their privileges in greater respect than himself, but that he was advised treason had no privilege; his confirming all that he had recently done for the advantage of his subjects; finally, his retiring, un

covered, as he had entered, with an air of courteous deference, but followed by those prolonged and ominous murmurs of "Privilege! privilege!" by which alone the members broke, at length, the profound silence they had hitherto observed.

The next day the house passed some resolutions, denouncing, in haughty terms, this "high breach of the rights and privileges of parliament," and immediately adjourned for a week; but resolved to sit in the meantime, as a committee of the house, at Guildhall.

A proclamation was issued commanding the ports to be shut, and forbidding any persons to harbour the accused members; yet the very house in which they were living--they can scarcely be said to have been concealed was well known. Lord Digby, the author, it was asserted, of all this mischief, Lunsford, and some other Cavaliers, offered to go and secure them by force. To this proposal the king had the firmness to refuse his consent, but the day following proceeded himself to the City. Arrived at the Tower, he sent to the lordmayor, to meet him at Guildhall, with the aldermen and common council. "Gentlemen," he said, when they were assembled, "I am come to demand such prisoners as I have already attainted of high treason; and believe they are shrouded in the City. I hope no good man will keep them from me. Their offences are treason and misdemeanours of a high nature. I desire your loving assistance herein, that they may be brought to a legal trial." The attempt had no other result but to exasperate farther "the madness of the

people," and to expose Charles's powerless condition to contempt.

Six days passed; days of intoxicating excitement without, of painful regret for this futile demonstration within, the palace at Whitehall. On the 11th, Hampden, Pym, Hollis, Haslerigg, Strode, (now too much the idols of the people, as well as the objects of the king's enmity, to preserve that manly moderation, without which, though they might win many victories, they could hardly achieve enduring success,) returned in triumph, escorted by the sheriffs and by vast crowds of shouting people, to the house of Commons, where congratulations, thanks, and plaudits, resounded on all sides. Their clamorous rejoicings reached not the king; he had retired, the previous evening, with his queen, their children and attendants, and " some thirty or forty" of the Cavaliers, to his house at Hampton Court.

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CHAPTER V.

THE RAISING OF THE STANDARD.

THE Commons strengthened their hands, once more, for the great work before them, by encouraging petitions expressive of confidence in the wisdom and firmness of parliament, and praying for the removal of papists, prelatists, and other malignant advisers of the king.

Hampden's county, Bucks, led the way; four thousand freeholders of that county, each wearing a copy of the recent protestation of the Commons against the breach of their privileges, brought up three several petitions to the Commons, the Lords, and the Sovereign. Middlesex, Essex, Surrey, Hertford, followed. Petitions came in from separate classes of citizens; the porters of London, the "many thousands of poor people in London," separately petitioned. At length, "the gentlewomen and tradesmen's wives" delivered their petition; a document couched in language of such fulsome extravagance, as must have sorely tried the risible faculties of "the noble worthies now sitting in parliament." It was gravely heard, however, and "the honourable assembly sent them an answer by