them up to this point now receded. Lord Digby was the principal of these. "Truly, sir," he said, on the discussion of the bill, "I am still the same in my opinions and affections, as unto the earl of Strafford. I confidently believe him to be the most dangerous minister, the most insupportable to free subjects, that can be charactered. I believe his practices in themselves as high, as tyrannical, as any subject ever ventured on; and the malignity of them hugely aggravated by those rare abilities of his, whereof God had given him the use, but the devil the application. In a word, I believe him to be still that grand apostate to the commonwealth, who must not expect to be pardoned in this world, till he be dispatched to the other. And yet, let me tell you, Mr. Speaker, my hand must not be to that dispatch. I protest, as my conscience stands informed, I had rather it were off!" The authority of Digby in this affair, however, may well be questioned, since it has been proved that he had at this time entered into an intrigue to save the life of the prisoner, and though he spoke against the bill with extreme earnestness, he at the same time no less earnestly offered to swear, that he knew nothing of a certain copy of important notes which had been lost, though they were afterwards found in his handwriting, in the royal cabinet taken at Naseby, and it turned out that having access to them, as a member of the impeachment committee, he had stolen them.1

The bill of attainder was passed on the 21st of April. While on its way to the lords, the king went to that house and addressed them. "I am sure," he said, "you all know that I have been present at the hearing of this great case from the one end to the other; and I must tell you, that I cannot in my conscience condemn him of high treason: -it is not fit for me to argue the business; I am sure you will not expect that; a positive doctrine best becomes the mouth of a prince." After beseeching them not to treat the earl with severity, he thus concluded :-“ I must confess, for matter of misdemeanors, I am so clear in that, that though I will not chalk out the way, yet let me tell you, that I do think my lord Strafford is not fit hereafter to serve me or the commonwealth in any place of trust, no, not so much as that of a constable. Therefore, I leave it to you, my lords, to find some such way as to bring me out of this great strait, and keep ourselves and the kingdom from such inconveniences. Certainly he that thinks him guilty of high treason in his conscience may condemn him of misde

meanor."

When Strafford heard in his prison of this intended interference, he had earnestly protested against it, and, on learning that the step was actually taken, he gave himself up for lost.1 He had judged truly. The leaders of the commons took advantage of the occasion it offered. The presbyterian pulpits of the following day, which happened to be Sunday, sent forth into every quarter of London, cries of "justice upon the great delinquent;" and on the succeeding morning, furious multitudes, variously armed, thronged the approaches to the house of lords; placarded as "Straffordians, or betrayers of their country," the names of those commoners who had voted against the attainder; and shouted openly for the blood of Strafford.

Pym, meanwhile, had discovered and crushed a conspiracy for his release, which had originated in the court, and was disclosed by the inviolable fidelity of the governor of the Tower.

No hope remained. The lords, proceeding upon the judicial opinion I have named, passed the bill of attainder, voting upon the articles judicially, and not as if they were enacting a legislative measure.

The earl of Strafford, with a generosity worthy of his intellect, now wrote to the king and released him

from his pledged word. "To say, sir," he wrote in the course of this memorable letter, "that there hath not been a strife in me, were to make me less man than, God knoweth, my infirmities make me; and to call a destruction upon myself and my young children (where the intentions of my heart at least have been innocent of this great offence), may be believed, will find no easy consent from flesh and blood." Its concluding passages ran thus: -" So now, to set your majesty's conscience at liberty, I do most humbly beseech your majesty, for prevention of evils which may happen by your refusal to pass this bill, and by this means to remove, praised be God, (I cannot say this accursed, but, I confess), this unfortunate thing, forth of the way towards that blessed agreement, which God, I trust, shall ever establish between you and your subjects. Sir, my consent shall more acquit you herein to God, than all the world can do besides. To a willing man there is no injury done. And as, by God's grace, I forgive all the world with a calmness and meekness of infinite contentment to my dislodging soul, so, sir, to you I can give the life of this world, with all the cheerfulness imaginable, in the just acknowledgment of your exceeding favours, and only beg, that in your goodness you would vouchsafe to cast your gracious regard upon my poor son and his three sisters, less or more, and no otherwise, than as their (in present) unfortunate father may hereafter appear more or less guilty of this death."

The singular note which has been preserved by Burnet, and which relates circumstances taken from the lips of Hollis himself, continues the deep interest of this tragic history: "The earl of Strafford had married his sister: so, though in the parliament he was one of the hottest men of the party, yet when that matter was before them, he always withdrew. When the bill of attainder was passed, the king sent for him, to know what he could do to save the earl of Strafford. Hollis answered that, if the king pleased, since the execution of the law was in him, he might legally grant

him a reprieve, which must be good in law; - but he would not advise it. That which he proposed was, that Jord Strafford should send him a petition for a short respite, to settle his affairs, and to prepare for death, upon which he advised the king to come next day with the petition in his hands, and lay it before the two houses, with a speech which he drew for the king, and Hollis said to him, he would try his interest among his friends to get them to consent to it. He prepared a great many by assuring them that, if they would save lord Strafford, he would become wholly theirs in consequence of his first principles, and that he might do hem much more service by being preserved, than he could do if made an example upon such new and doubtful points. In this he had wrought on so many, that he believed if the king's party had struck into it he might have saved him." 1

While the party thus prepared to second Hollis waited their time, the king suddenly resorted to a different scheme, and, having with tears in his eyes signed the commission for giving assent to the bill, declaring at the same time, that Strafford's condition was happier than his own, sent the lords a letter, written by his own hand, and, as a further proof of his deep interest, with the young prince of Wales as its messenger. " I did yesterday," ran this letter, " satisfy the justice of the kingdom, by passing the bill of attainder against the earl of Strafford; but mercy being as inherent and inseparable to a king as justice, I desire at this time, in some measure, to show that likewise, by suffering that unfortunate man to fulfil the natural course of his life in a close imprisonment. Yet so, if ever he make the least offer to escape, or offer directly or indirectly to meddle in any sort of public business, especially with me, either by message or letter, it shall cost him his life without farther process. This, if it may be done without the discontentment of my people, will be an unspeakable contentment to me. which end, as in the first place, I by this letter do

To

earnestly desire your approbation, and, to endear it more, have chose him to carry it, that of all your house is most dear to me. So I desire, that by a conference you will endeavour to give the house of commons contentment, assuring you that the exercise of mercy is no more pleasing to me, than to see both houses of parliament consent, for my sake, that I should moderate the severity of the law in so important a case. I will not say, that your complying with me in this my intended mercy shall make me more willing, but certainly 't will make me more cheerful, in granting your just grievances. But if no less than his life can satisfy my people, I must say - fiat justitia. Thus again, recommending the consideration of my intention to you, I' rest." The following was added as a postscript: "If he must die, it were charity to reprieve him until Saturday."

Hollis's scheme was now thoroughly defeated, and death secured to Strafford. This pitiable letter ended all. It is a sorry office to plant the foot on a worm so crushed and writhing as the wretched king who signed it, for it was one of the few crimes of which he was in the event thoroughly sensible, and friend has for once co-operated with foe in the steady application to it of the branding iron. There is in truth hardly any way of relieving the " damned spot" of its intensity of hue, even by distributing the concentrated infamy over other portions of Charles's character. The reader who has gone through the preceding details of Strafford's life can surely not suggest any. For when we have con vinced ourselves that this "unthankful king" never really loved Strafford; that, as much as in him lay, he kept the dead Buckingham in his old privilege of mischief, by adopting his aversions and abiding by his spleenful purposes; that, in his refusals to award those increased honours for which his minister was a petitioner, on the avowed ground of the royal interest, may be discerned the petty triumph of one who dares not dispense with the services thrust upon him, but