and was never intended by you to ask, nor meant by me, I am sure, to grant." And he called on them, but more especially the lords, who were the judges, to take notice of what he declared his meaning to be when he granted the petition.
The mischief had been done by former parliaments granting this impost, which we now call customs duties, for life; and though parliament had never altogether surrendered the power of voting it, nor had voted it for life to Charles, he had come to consider it as merged into a matter of prerogative, and not to be affected by his general concession just made. The commons, however, meant nothing less than that, as well as every other grant of taxes on the subject, to be void without their assent. Here, therefore, as so often afterwards, they found themselves just where they were with the king as matter of dispute, though they had settled the question as matter of right. No man was ever so hard as Charles I. to be made to see what he did not like. He therefore gave his assent to the subsidies, and prorogued the parliament till October; and, as if to mark how far he was from intending to submit to what he had thus so solemnly in the face of the whole nation bound himself to, he proceeded to reward the men who had so shamefully advocated absolute power in him. He made bishops of both Montague and Mainwaring, and promoted Sibthorpe to good fat livings.
Whilst these great national struggles had been going on, queen Henrietta had given birth on the 13th of May to a son which only survived a few hours; and she had been counterfeited by a mad girl at Limoges, who gave out that she was the unhappy queen of England, who had escaped from her tyrant husband and his savage heretical subjects, much to the exasperation of the good people of France. Louis, however, who knew that his sister was now living in great comfort and harmony with her husband, compelled the impostor to confess her falsehood, and made her do penance by walking in public procession with a lighted taper in her hand, and then shut her up in prison. Charles had also found time to settle Maryland, naming it after his queen, who was, as we have observed, called at court queen Mary. He had collected from the streets fifteen hundred orphans and homeless children, and shipped them thither, showing what works of real advantage to his kingdom were open to this monarch, if he had not been cursed with the fatal ambition of making himself absolute.
The king's attention was soon drawn from the battle with the commons to the-demands of the unfortunate people of Rochelle upon him. He had solemnly pledged his honour to assist them, and they now sorely needed it. Since Buckingham left them to their fate, Rochelle had been invested by the French army under the king and Richelieu, and the besieged loudly called on the king of England to succour them according to his promise. The earl of Denbigh was despatched thither with a numerous fleet, yet had done nothing; but having shown himself before the town for seven days, returned, to the great mortification of the Rochellais. Denbigh had been raised to his rank and title simply for marrying a sister of Buckingham's, and the people murdered loudly at the fleet being put into such incompetent hands. The hatred of the duke rose higher and higher and on the same day that he was pronounced by the commons the cause of all these national calamities, his physician. Dr. Lambe, was murdered by a mob in London, and a placard was affixed on the walls in these words:—"Who rules the kingdom?—The king, Who rules the king?—The duke. Who rules the duke?—The devil. Let the duke look to it, or he will be served as his doctor was served." A doggrel rhyme was in the mouths of the common people:—
Let Charles and George do what they can,
The duke shall die like Dr. Lambe.
The king was extremely concerned when the placard was shown him, and added double guard at night, but the duke treated the whole with contempt, and prepared to proceed himself with the fleet to relieve Rochelle. Charles went with him to Deptford to see the ships, and is reported to have said to Buckingham on beholding them, "George, there are those who wish that both these and thou may perish; but we will both perish together, if thou dost." Buckingham proceeded to Portsmouth, where he was to embark. Clarendon relates that the ghost of, Buckingham's father had appeared to an officer of the king's wardrobe three times, urging him to go to his son and warn him to do something to abate the hatred of the people, or that he would not be allowed to live long. Since the demonstrations in London, it needed no ghost to show his danger. But he was never gayer than on the eve of the verification of the omens and the menaces.
The duke, on the 23rd of August, rose in high spirits, even dancing in his gaiety, and went to breakfast with a great number of his officers. Whilst he was at breakfast, M. Soubise, the envoy of the people of Rochelle, went to him, and was seen in earnest private conversation. It is supposed that Soubise had come to the knowledge of certain recent negotiations betwixt England and France, in which, though both monarchs showed every tendency to listen to an accommodation, neither had yet ventured to propose it; but that it was the object of Buckingham rather to treat than to fight when he got to Rochelle. At that very moment Mr. Secretary Carleton had arrived from the king with instructions to Buckingham to open by some means a communication with Richelieu, and thus, as it were, accidentally to bring about a treaty. Probably Soubise had acquired hints of those things, for both he and many other Frenchmen about Buckingham appeared greatly discontented, and vociferated and gesticulated energetically. The duke, it is said, had been endeavouring to persuade Soubise that Rochelle was already relieved, which he was too well informed to credit.
The duke now prepared to go out to his carriage, which was waiting at the door, and as he went through the hall, still followed by the French gentlemen, colonel Friar whispered something in his ear. He turned to listen, and at the same moment a knife was plunged into his heart, and there left sticking. Plucking it out with the word "Villain!" he fell, covered with blood. His servants, who caught him as he was falling, thought it was a stroke of apoplexy, but the blood both from the wound and his mouth, quickly undeceived them. Then an alarm was raised; some ran to close the gates, and others rushed forth to spread the news. The duchess of Buckingham and her sister, the countess of Anglesea, heard the noise in their chamber, and ran into the
