This was the time for the generals to interpose: and they knew it. Next morning, when the commons were to meet, colonel Pride, formerly a drayman, had, by order of his superiors, environed the house with a party of soldiers. He seized in the passage forty one members of the presbyterian party, above an hundred and fifty more commoners were excluded; and none were allowed to enter but the most furious and determined of the independents, who did not exceed sixty in number. This remnant, ludicrously called the Rump, instantly reversed the former vote, and declared the king's concessions unsatisfactory35. The future proceedings of the parliament, if a fanatical junto entirely under the direction of the army, can deserve that honourable name, were worthy of the members that composed it. After having exercised their vengeance on all whom they feared, or who had been engaged in the late insurrections, they determined to close the scene with the public trial and execution of their sovereign. A committee of the house of commons was accordingly appointed to bring in a charge against the king; and, on their report, a vote passed, declaring it high treason in a king to levy war against his parliament, and appointing an bigh court of justice to try CHARLES STUART for that crime. This vote was sent up to the house of peers, and rejected without one dissenting voice, contemptible as were the few peers that now attended! but the commons were not to be stopped by so small an obstacle. Having first established the principle, that "the people are the origin of all just power," a maxim noble in itself, but which, as in the present case, may be perverted to the worst of purposes, they next declared, "that the commons of England, assembled in parliament, "being chosen by the people, and representing them, have "the supreme authority of the nation, and that whatever is enacted and declared law by the commons, hath the 35. Rushworth, vol. viii. Clarendon, vel. v. Hume, vol. vii. LET. VII.] 371 "force of law, without the consent of the king or house of JAN. 4. "Should any one have voluntarily proposed," said Cromwell, "to bring the king to punishment, I should have re"garded him as the greatest traitor; but since Providence "and necessity have cast us upon it, I will pray to God for "a blessing on your counsels, though I am not prepared to "give you any advice on this important occasion. Even I "myself," added he, "when I was lately offering up peti"tions for his majesty's restoration, felt my tongue cleave to "the roof of my mouth, and considered this supernatural "movement as the answer which heaven, having rejected "the king, had sent to my supplications57!" Colonel Harrison, the son of a butcher, and the most furious enthusiast in the army, was sent with a strong party to conduct the king to London. All the exterior symbols of sovereignty were now withdrawn, and Charles was sensible, that a period would, in a short time, be put to his life: yet could he not persuade himself, after all the steps that had been taken, that his enemies really meant to conclude their violences by a public trial and execution. The form of the trial, however, was soon regulated, and the high court of justice, or rather of iniquity, fully constituted. It sat in Westminster-hall, and consisted of near an hundred and fifty persons, as named by the commons; though scarce seventy ever attended, and few of these were men of either birth or character. Cromwell, Iretón, Harrison, and other officers of the army; some members of the lower house, and some citizens of London, were the awful judges appointed to try their sovereign. Bradshaw, a lawyer, was chosen president; Coke, another lawyer, was appointed so 36. Parl. Hist. vol. xvii. JAN. 16. 37. Id. ibid. licitor licitor for the people of England, and Dorislaus, Steele, and Aske, were named assistants. Though the king had long been detained a prisoner, and was now produced as a criminal, he still remembered what he owed to himself before such an inferior tribunal, and sustained with composure, and magnanimity the majesty of the throne. Being conducted to a chair, placed within the bar, he took his seat with his hat on, and surveyed his judges with an air of dignified disdain. The solicitor represented in the name of the commons, that Charles Stuart, being admitted king of England, and entrusted with a limited power, had nevertheless, from a wicked design to erect an unlimited and tyrannical government, traiterously and maliciously levied war against the present parliament, and the people whom they represented, and was therefore impeached as a tyrant, traitor, murderer, and a public and implacable enemy to the commonwealth. When the charge was finished, the president directed his discourse to the king, and told him, that the court expected his answer. Charles, with great temper and firmness, declined the authority of the court. Having been engaged in a treaty with the two houses of parliament, and having finished almost every article, he had expected, he said, before this time, to be brought to his capital in another manner, and to have been restored to his power, dignity, and revenue, as well as to his personal liberty; that he could now perceive no appearance of the upper house, so essential a part of the constitution; and had learned, that even the commons, whose authority was pleaded, were subdued by lawless force: that the whole authority of the state, though free and united, was not entitled to try him, their hereditary king; that he acknowledged he had a TRUST committed to him, and one most sacred and inviolable; he was entrusted with the liberties of his people, and would not now betray them, by recognizing a power founded on the most atrocious violence and usurpation; that having taken arms, and frequently exposed his life in defence of of public liberty, of the constitution, and of the fundamental laws of the kingdom, he was willing, in this last and most solemn scene, to seal with his blood those precious rights, for which, though unsuccessfully, he had struggled so long33. The president still contended, that the king must not decline the authority of his judges; that they over-ruled his objections; that they were delegated by the people, the only source of all lawful power; and that kings themselves act only in trust from that community, which had invested this high court of justice with its jurisdiction. Three times was Charles produced before the court, and as often declined its jurisdiction. On the fourth sitting, the judges having examined some witnesses, by whom it was proved, that the king had appeared in arms against the forces commissioned by the parliament, they pronounced sentence against him ; adjudging, that he, the said Charles Stuart, as a tyrant, traitor, murderer, and public enemy, should be put to death, by the severing of his head from his body. Firm and intrepid in all his appearances before his judges, the unfortunate monarch, never forgot himself either as a prince or as a man: nor did he discover any emotion at this extraordinary sentence; but seemed to look down, with a mixture of pity and contempt, on all the efforts of human malice and iniquity39. Three days were allowed him between his sentence and execution. These he passed in great tranquillity, occupied himself chiefly in reading and devotion, and every night slept as sound as usual; though the noise of the workmen employed in framing the Scaffold, and making other preparations for his exit, continually resounded in his ears4o. Charles, however, though thus oppressed by a rebellious faction, was not suffered to die without the tear of com 38. State Trials. vol. ii. Rushworth, vol. viii. Clarendon, vol. v. C. Walker's Hist, of Independency. Ludlow. vol. I. 39. Id. ibid. VOL. III. 40. C. Walker's Hist. of Independency. 3 F passion passion, or the interposition of friendly powers. The people who, in their misguided fury, had before so violently rejected him, now avowed him for their monarch, by their generous sorrow; nor could they forbear pouring forth their prayers for his preservation, notwithstanding the rod of tyranny that hung over them. The French ambassador, by orders from his court, interposed in the king's behalf; the Dutch employed their good offices; the Scots exclaimed, and protested against the intended violence, which insultingly pretended to conceal itself under the semblance of law and justice; and the queen and the prince of Wales wrote pathetic letters to the parliament. But all their solicitations were in vain. Nothing could alter the resolutions of men, whose ambitious projects required the blood of their sovereign as a seal. On the morning of the fatal day, the king rose early, and continued his devotions till noon, assisted by bishop JAN. SO. Juxon; a man whose mild and steady virtues very much resembled those of his sovereign. The Street before Whitehall was the place destined for the execution; it being intended, by choosing that place, to display more fully the triumph of popular justice over tyrannical power. And Charles, having drank a glass of wine, and ate a bit of bread, walked through the banqueting-house to the scaffold, which was covered with Llack cloth. In the middle of it appeared the block and axe, with two executioners in masques. Several troops of horse and companies of foot were placed around it; and a vast number of spectators waited in silent horror, at a greater distance. The king eyed all these solemn preparations with great composure; and finding that he could not expect to be heard by the people, he addressed himself to the few about his person, but particularly to colonel Tomlinson, to whose care he had been lately committed, and on whom he had wrought an entire conversion. He vindicated himself from the accusation of having commenced war against his parliament. But, although |