effort to save the old man's life was by the production of a pardon which had been prepared at Oxford, as soon as the danger of his conviction was seen, and was signed and sealed by the king. This pardon was read in both houses, but was declared of no effect, the king having no power to pardon crime adjudged by parliament. On the appointed day, the archbishop was beheaded on Tower Hill. The news of his death made a deep impression on Charles. Both he and Strafford had died for the execution of his orders, and for the very same offence against the constitution for which he was now proscribed by parliament. In his eyes they were martyrs, not to his own crimes against the people, but to the lawless power of parliament. He had weakly surrendered the Life of Strafford, but here parliament had proceeded without him; and he felt a deep satisfaction in the belief that God would punish them for this awful sin, and that their cause would dwindle and perish under his divine displeasure.
The fate of Laud has been greatly lamented, and there were many circumstances which caused men to regard his last days with commiseration. He had suffered severely from his confinement and anxiety of mind, and was overwhelmed by age and infirmities. Time had weakened the sense of his crimes, and circumstance? had deprived him of any further power of evil. But, on the other hand, we must bear in mind that he had been a most determined traitor to all freedom of mind, conscience, and person; a fearful violator of the sacred guarantees of domestic life, and of personal feeling and existence, in the horrid places in the star-chamber; and as he was undoubtedly guilty of the highest possible kind of treason against the nation, the example of his punishment was salutary—a stern warning to future high-priests of political and ecclesiastical force.
CHAPTER V.
REIGN OF CHARLES I. (Continued)
The condition of the king's court at this time was enough to have made any one else despair of his cause, We cannot do better than give it as drawn by the royal historian Clarendon himself It must be premised that to gratify the importunities of his other ambitious officers, he had been induced to remove lord Wilmot from the command of the cavalry, and lord Percy from that of the ordnance, and to place prince Rupert, who was detested by all, on account of his haughty and imperious temper, in the post of Grey of Ruthven, who had retired from increasing infirmities. But says Clarendon, "The king's army was united less than ever; the old general was set aside, and prince Rupert put into the command, which was no popular change, for the other was known to be an officer of great experience, and had committed no oversights in his conduct; was willing to hear everything debated, and always concurred with the most reasonable opinion; and though he was not of many words, and was not quick in hearing, yet upon any action he was sprightly, and commanded well. The prince was rough and passionate, and loved not debate; liked what was proposed, as he liked the persons who proposed it; and was so great an enemy of Digby and Colepepper, who were only present in debates of the war with the officers, that he crossed all they proposed. The truth is, all the army had been disposed, from the first raising it, to a neglect and contempt of the council; and the king himself had not been solicitous to preserve the respect due to it, in which he lost his own dignity.
"Goring, who was now general of the horse, was no more gracious to prince Rupert than Wilmot had been, and had all the other's faults, and wanted his regularity, and preserving his respect with the officers. Wilmot loved debauchery, but kept it out from his business; never neglected that, and rarely miscarried in it. Goring had a much better understanding and a sharper wit, except in the very exercise of debauchery, and then the other was inspired, a much keener courage and presentness of mind in danger. Wilmot discovered it farther off, and because he could not behave himself so well in it, commonly prevented, or warily declined it, and never drank when he was within distance of an enemy. Goring was not able to resist the temptation when he was in the middle of them, nor would decline it to obtain a victory; and in one of those fits he suffered the horse to escape out of Cornwall, and the most signal misfortunes of his life in war had their rise from that uncontrollable license. Neither of them valued their professions, promises, or friendships, according to any rules of honour or integrity; but Wilmot violated them less willingly, and never but for some great benefit or convenience to himself; Goring, without scruple, out of humour, or for wit's sake, and loved no man so well but that he would cozen him, and then expose him to the public mirth for having been cozened. Therefore he had always fewer friends than the other, but more company, for no man had a wit that pleased the company better. The ambition of both was unlimited, and so equally incapable of being contented, and both unrestrained by any respect to good nature or justice, from pursuing the satisfaction thereof; yet Wilmot had more scruples from religion to startle him, and would not have attained his end by any gross or foul act of wickedness. Goring could have passed through those pleasantly, and would, without any hesitation, have broken any trust, or done any act of treachery, to have satisfied an ordinary passion or appetite; and in truth, wanted nothing but industry—for he had wit, and courage, and understanding, and ambition uncontrolled by any fear of God or man—to have been as eminent and successful in the highest attempt in wickedness, of any man in the age he lived in or before. Of all his qualifications dissimulation was his masterpiece, in which he had so much excelled, that men were not ordinarily ashamed or out of countenance with being deceived but twice by him.
"The court was not much better disposed than the army; they who had no preferment were angry with those who had, and thought they had not deserved it as well as themselves. They who were envied found no satisfaction or
