nor justice allowed him. With the assurance
of strict legality on his lips, with the words
scarce spoken which had invited Pym to be one
of his closest advisers and one of the most
influential ministers of the realm, he was preparing to
execute the plot which, if successful, would
destroy all law and all power of law-making, and
leave him absolute master of everything.

Then it was that the queen ruined all, and
Lady Carlisle saved all. In the intemperance
of her eager hatred, Henrietta said to Lady
Carlisle, Strafford's fast friend and now Pym's,
"Rejoice: for I know now that the king is master
in his states, and that Pym and his confederates
are in custody." For a full hour she had kept
back this passionate boast; but the time which
she had allowed as a sign of success, had elapsed,
and she let the flood burst forth. Within an
hour of that time, Pym knew what was to be
done. In the period of adjournment between
twelve and one, Lady Carlisle sent her friend word
of what was coming, and prepared him to act with
deliberation and dignity. At one, the House
reassembled, and though the five members had
received an intimation from Lord Essex to absent
themselves, they retured with the rest, and the
Speaker ordered their presence to be noted. It
was then argued, Should they absent themselves?
Pym, Holles, and Hampden, were for
going. They felt their own worth at this juncture,
and saw no good in perhaps losing their
lives for the mere show of independence.
Hazelrigge and Strode were for staying; and Pym
was unable to give any very distinct reason for
his urgency against them, not wishing to
compromise Lady Carlisle, and not able to speak
plainly without doing so. The question was
being debated with great earnestness, when,
breathless with clambering over roof-tops,
rushed in Captain Hercule Langres, friend
of Nathaniel Fiennes, with the news that the
king, at the head of some five or six hundred
armed men, was close at the doors of the House,
coming to seize the members with his own hand.
There was no time now, for deliberation. The
members rose, and, dragging with them Strode
by main force, escaped, just as a loud knocking
was heard, and the king's voice, charging the
others not to enter on their lives, rose high
above the din. The members had not got to
the water when the king was passing by their
vacant places.

With a stern countenance and a darkening
brow, Charles walked straight up the House,
where never a king had been before, but one—
Henry the Eighth. The Speaker kept his
chair by order of the House, his mace lying
before him. The members rose, uncovered, and
bowed, as Charles, with something less than his
usual kingly grace, strode heavily up the House,
also uncovered, and bowing to the right and the
left, as the lines of pale and sullen faces met his
eye. Behind him, the door was held by Captain
Hide, with his sheathed sword raised upright in
his hand, while a multitude, of riotous " swash
bucklers," armed with pistols and swords,
pressed densely behind him, waiting but the
word which should slip them like beasts of prey
upon the defiant House. Charles walked up to
the chair where sat Lenthal, the Speaker. " Mr.
Speaker," said the king, " I must make bold to
take your chair."

Mr. Speaker Lenthal bowed and stepped
aside; but even Charles the First, in his rashest
moment, did not venture to sit down in the
chair of the King of the Commons, and in the
face of the Commons. The only person in all
the assembly who was sitting, was impassive
young Mr. Rushworth, taking notes at the
clerks' table, as the king's slow voice and
hesitating words broke the sullen and awful silence.
Young Mr. Rushworth's notes are still preserved,
with the king's corrections and erasures; and
Mr. Forster gives them in a foot-note, exactly
as they are, with Charles's broad lines across
whole passages, and careful emendations of
sundry words which, on reviewal, seemed, even
to him, too strong.

"Gentlemen," said Charles, " I am sorry for this
occasion of coming unto you. Yesterday I sent a
serjeant-at-arms upon a very important occasion, to
apprehend some that, by my command, were accused
of high treason: whereunto I did expect obedience
and not a message. And I must declare unto you
here, that albeit no king that ever was in England
shall be more careful of your privileges, to maintain
them to the uttermost of his power, than I shall be,
yet you must know that in cases of treason no
person hath a privilege. And, therefore, I am come to
know if any of those persons that were accused are
here."

Then he paused; and casting his eyes upon all
the members in the House, said, " I do not see any
of them. I think I would know them.

"For I must tell you, gentlemen," he resumed
after another pause, " that so long as those persons
that I have accused (for no slight crime, but for
treason) are here, I cannot expect that this House
will be in the right way that I do heartily wish it.
Therefore, I am come to tell you that I must have
them, wheresoever I find them."

Then again he hesitated, stopped, and called
out, " Is Mr. Pym here?" To which nobody gave
answer.

He then asked for Mr. Holles, but still no one
spoke; when he turned to poor Mr. Speaker
Lenthal and pressed the question upon him.
But Mr. Speaker, kneeling down, "did very
wisely desire his Majesty to pardon him, saying
that he could neither see nor speak but by
command of the House; to which the king answered:
' Well, well! 'tis no matter. I think my eyes
are as good as another's.' And then he looked
round about the House a pretty while, to see if
he could espie any of them." But the blow had
glanced aside, and the intended victims were
now safe.

Mr. Forster speaks for us again:

After that long pause (described by D'Ewes),
the dreadful silence, as one member called it, Charles
spoke again to the crowd of mute and sullen faces.
The complete failure of his scheme was now
accomplished, and all its possible consequences, all the suspicions and retaliations to which it had laid him
open, appear to have rushed upon his mind. "Well,
since I see all my birds are flown, I do expect from