Selden and Rudyard said the like. In fact, there was a just distinction in the minds of such men between Episcopacy, by which they meant the spiritual government and authority of Bishops, which they never meant to impugn, and Prelacy, by which they signified the temporal power and rank, of which men like Beaufort, Wolsey, and their own contemporary, Richelieu, availed themselves in so unsuitable a manner. Unfortunately Bishop Williams had shown himself a thorough specimen of the same character; and Laud, in his zeal for the dignity of the Church, had thought to exalt her by putting himself and Juxon | into stations of State authority. There were many on both sides who thought Prelacy and Episcopacy one and the same; and, at any rate, most true Churchmen felt bound not to yield a single bulwark. The debate lasted two days; but there was a majority of thirty-two against the Churchmen, and the petition was referred to a Committee. The King, however, made known that nothing should induce him to consent to the overthrow of the Bishops; and on the other hand St. Antholin's rang with the preachings and prayers of the Scots against what they termed an unscriptural Church; indeed, they went so far that they roused the English spirit against their attempting to dictate, and had to draw back a little. The King meantime looked on in distress and dismay at the way in which authority was taken out of his hands, and all that he loved and reverenced most thus attacked. He felt himself paralysed by the two armies, Scotch and English in the north. He could obtain no means, and was obliged to pawn his plate for the supply of his table, and he was afraid to make any decided movement one way or the other, lest he should bring down the vengeance of his enemies upon Laud and Strafford, who were like hostages in their hands; but Henrietta hoped to further his cause by a succession of private interviews with the chiefs of the party hostile to Strafford. She described herself as giving a rendezvous every evening to one or other of what she termed the most méchant of the enemies, admitting him by the back-stairs to the empty apartment of some absent lady of honour, meeting him alone with a flambeau in her hand, and making all sorts of offers if Strafford might be spared; but she considered herself to have gained over nobody but Lord Digby, and she probably did much more harm than good. She had entertained grand hopes of Spanish marriages for her eldest son and daughter, but her mother, Marie de Medici, had, during her residence in Holland, promised the Prince of Orange, Frederick Henry, to bring about a match between his son William and one of her granddaughters. A deputation of nobles arrived to make proposals for the little Lady Mary, and though at first reluctant, Charles thought this an excellent opportunity of proving his Protestantism, and accepted the proposal. The bridegroom was fifteen years old, the bride ten. It was stipulated that he should come to London for the marriage; but that she should remain for two years longer with her parents, that she CAMEO XXVIII. Vote on the Petition. CAMEO XXVIII. Treaty of marriage for Mary. should then repair to Holland, and be allowed free exercise of the rites of the English Church, retaining English attendants to the number of twenty-six. Her father was to give her a portion of £40,000, and her jointure as a widow was to be £10,000 a year, with two princely houses, one at the Hague and one in the country. All these arrangements proved very important, not only to Mary but to all her family. The King had recourse to Parliament for the promised portion, and the Protestant alliance being satisfactory, it was voted without difficulty. It was not so much on saving money that the House of Commons was set, as on establishing their power, and ruining those whom they viewed as their enemies. STRAFFORD had been impeached without any special charge, and two secret committees, one of Peers, the other of Commons, were appointed to collect evidence and get up a case against him; both being chosen from his adversaries. An order was made by the Lords that the Earl of Ranelagh, Lord Ditton and Sir Adam Loftus, all state-officers in Ireland, should be summoned as witnesses, licence being demanded from the King for them to leave their charges for the purpose. He could not refuse it, any more than he could the other demand, that his privy councillors should be released from their oaths to disclose nothing that passed at the council board, since a refusal would only have excited suspicion. To prevent Strafford from profiting by the witness of his friends, Sir George Radclyffe, Doctor Bramhall, Bishop of Derry, and Chief Justice Sir Gerard Lowther were impeached for contravening the ancient customs of Ireland. Moreover, the prisoner only received permission to summon witnesses three days before the trial began, far too short a time for bringing them from Ireland. The Commons further demanded that no person created a peer since the impeachment should vote on the trial, thus excluding Lord Keeper Littleton. They also demanded that the bishops should not vote in the matter, though the constitutions of Clarendon had stipulated that they should be among the judges in questions of life and limb, and they could have maintained their right had not Bishop Williams requested permission for himself and his brethren not to assist in agitatione causæ sanguinis. He was an enemy of Strafford, and well knew that the majority of the Bench would weigh in the other direction. The trial began on the 22nd of March, 1541, in Westminster Hall, CAMEO XXIX. Attack on CAMED XXIX. Charges against Strafford. before the Peers, the Commons, however, being present. Two private boxes behind the throne were prepared for the King and Queen, covered with tapestry screens to conceal them, but Charles with his own hands tore this away, so as to be perfectly visible, in the hope that his presence might be some restraint; but he was treated as incognito, and the Lords sat covered. There were also two galleries, where sat some foreign noblemen, including the French Ambassador, and a good many ladies deeply interested, "fair Sempronias taking notes,” as the parliamentary historian May called them. One third of the hall was railed off for the public. Baillie, the Scottish Commissioner, was present, and tells us that to secure a place among the spectators, it behoved to be there by five in the morning-when it could have been scarcely daylight —and, if the seat was relinquished there was no returning, so that "after ten there was much public eating, not only of confections, but of bread and flesh, bottles of beer and wine going thick from mouth to mouth without cups," so that there was "not such gravity" as he expected in so serious a cause, and in the King's presence. The prisoner was escorted from the Tower by six barges of armed guards, and brought in each morning at nine o'clock. He made three obeisances to the Earl of Arundel, the Lord High Steward, knelt at the bar, rose and bowed to the right and left to the Peers, his friends returning the bow. His children—two girls and a boy-sat near him with their stepmother. The impeachment was then read. It consisted of twenty-eight chief articles, and occupied two hundred sheets of paper. This, with a brief and dignified reply, occupied the first day. The charges were all based on his high-handed exercise of power on behalf of the Crown in Yorkshire and in Ireland, and not a single one of them, if proved, would have amounted to treason, for, as Strafford observed, a hundred white rabbits could never make a white horse. The strong man stood like a lion in the toils, no one mesh strong enough to hold him, yet all together forming a fatal entanglement. On the second day, Pym made a long speech, and a petition from the Irish enemies was presented. Witnesses from Ireland were produced, complaining of the Earl's proceedings. The prisoner was allowed counsel, though he and they did not even know beforehand on what charge the day's accusation would be founded; but he was permitted to examine the witnesses, and he did so with great calmness, judgment, and temper, obtaining great respect and admiration for his ability, even from his enemies, disproving some charges, showing the royal warrant for many of his doings, and finding precedents for others. Any member of the House of Commons might question him; but two barristers named Glynne and Maynard chiefly conducted the prosecution. However, they made little or no progress. The sight of one man standing at bay against the Parliament and the three nations was striking in itself, and as his shield of honest loyalty made one weapon after another fall blunted, the hearts of many were turned towards him; the ladies in the galleries declared themselves his САМЕО XXIX. Notes of Sir partisans, the clergy thought more of his danger than of the Archbishop's, more peers returned his salute every day, and the very rabble in the streets grew more respectful. So thirteen days had passed, and his enemies were feeling themselves Harry Vane. baffled, when, on the 10th of April, Mr. Pym told the Commons that he had something important to communicate to them. They went into committee and locked the doors, and Pym then produced a copy of some notes, purporting to have been taken at the privy council by the elder Sir Harry Vane. According to these jottings, Strafford had told the King that he would be acquitted of using force, and that he had an army in Ireland which would reduce this kingdom to obedience, for the Scots could not hold out five months. As to how these notes were obtained, there are different stories—one being that young Vane turned over his father's papers and abstracted them, the other that Sir Harry put them in his way on purpose to injure Strafford; but the latter is very unlikely, as Sir Harry remembered very little as to what he meant by the abbreviated notes. Privy councillors were sworn to reveal nothing that passed among them, and the whole matter was so discreditable that, though Pym had, it seems, been in possession of the notes for several months past, he durst not employ them till, finding the tide turning in favour of the man he so bitterly hated, he brought them forward as a last resource to influence the passions of the people, who thought of nothing with so much horror as a horde of Irish Papists let loose on them. On the 12th of April, the charge thus discovered was brought against the prisoner in Court. Strafford replied by demanding that the other members of the Council should be asked whether he had used the words ascribed to him. Six had been present besides Laud, a prisoner in the Tower, and Windebank, a fugitive in France, and not one of them recollected this piece of advice. Strafford represented that the law required at least two witnesses in a case of high treason, and Vane scarcely amounted to one witness, for he did not recollect whether the "kingdom" to be reduced had been Scotland or England, and no one could call speaking of reducing Scotland treason to England. Though ill and suffering, Strafford made his defence ably. "It is hard to be questioned upon a law which cannot be shown," he said; and after eloquently proving the danger alike to the councillors and to the welfare of the country, that would ensue from making a man accountable for confidential advice, he thus concluded: "My lords, I have troubled you longer than I should have done, were it not for the interest of these dear pledges a saint in heaven hath left me," and as he pointed to the children, his voice was choked with tears. "What I forfeit myself is nothing; but that my indiscretion should extend to my posterity wounds me to the very soul. You will pardon my infirmity. Something I should have added, but am not able, therefore let it pass. And now, my lords, for myself, I have been, by the blessing of Almighty God, taught that the afflictions of this present life are not to |