was committed to the Tower. The delay in his commitment was occasioned by the arrest of his great brother in the "thorough," Strafford, and the proceedings consequent on it; but meantime his aiders, abettors, and instruments were not forgotten. Harbottle Grimston, in his speech demanding the impeachment of Laud, called as loudly for the punishment of all his fiery coadjutors. "Who," he exclaimed, "but he only, brought the earl of Strafford to all his great employments? Who but he brought in secretary Windebank, the very brother and panderer to the whore of Babylon? Who but he hath advanced all our popish bishops—Mainwaring, bishop of Bath and Wells, the bishop of Oxford, and bishop Wren, the least of all these birds, but one of the most unclean?"
All these bold asserters of the divine right of kings and of bishops, Mainwaring, Bancroft, Price, and Wren, were now snugly seated in bishoprics; and Wren, now bishop of Ely, a most unscrupulous persecutor of the nonconformists, when bishop of Norwich had driven out the industrious foreign clothiers, who had settled there on their escape from persecution in their own country, because they would not abandon their own faith and adopt the Anglican ceremonies. The very next day after the arrest of Laud, the commons sent a message to the peers by Hampden, that Wren was endeavouring to escape, and the peers ordered him to give bail to the amount of ten thousand pounds.
But the commons had been all this time more deeply engaged in securing the most daring and dangerous offender of all, the earl of Strafford. Laud, who was generally in London, was more safely within their power at any moment; but Strafford was left in the north, where he was lieutenant-general of the army, lord president of the council of the north, and could at any instant slip away to Ireland, where he had still more authority, and a considerable army. Laud, once caged, could wait; but Strafford must be both secured and promptly dealt with. His own friends in London, and his own sagacity, sufficiently apprised Strafford of the danger which awaited him if he came to town. He represented to the king that it were much better on all accounts that he should remain where he was. That in London he should by his presence remind the opposition of their enmity towards him; that he would therefore only further embarass the king's affairs, whilst he could be of service with the army in the north, and if necessary, escape to Ireland, where he might do the king real service. But Charles, who felt his weakness without Strafford, in whose judgment and power of overruling men he had the highest faith, would not hear of it, but insisted on his coming to London; and great anger of the puritans. Seeing the hour of retribution pledged himself to guarantee his safety, reminding him that he was king of England, and that parliament should not touch a hair of his head. Strafford was rather bound to obey as a subject and servant of the crown, than assured of his safety by those solemn pledges. He went to town, and on the third day after his arrival he was arrested, and in the custody of the keeper of the black rod. Charles had inveigled the unhappy man to his doom, from which neither the king's word nor the king's authority could save him.
On the 11th of November, 1640, assuming an outward air of unconcern, Strafford went to take his seat in the house of lords. The earl of Northumberland, writing to the earl of Leicester on the 13th, declared that "a greater and more universal hatred was never contracted by any person, than he has drawn upon himself, yet he is not at all dejected." No sooner, however, did he appear in the house, than his evil angel appeared there too, and demanded his seizure on a charge of high treason. Pym, when Wentworth abandoned the cause of reform at the temptation of the king, had said plainly to him, "You are going to leave us, but we will never leave you while your head is upon your shoulders!" and for himself he kept that vow singly, sternly, inviolably, till it was accomplished.
Baillie, who was one of the Scotch commissioners, gives this striking account of his arrest:—"he calls rudely at the door: James Maxwell, keeper of the black rod, opens. His lordship, with a proud, gloomy countenance, makes towards his place at the board head: but at once many bid him avoid the house; so he is forced in confusion to go back till he is called. After consideration, being called in, he stands, but is commanded to kneel, and on his knees to hear the sentence. Being on his knees, he is delivered to the keeper of the black rod, to be prisoner till he was cleared of these crimes the house of commons had charged him with. He offered to speak, but was commanded to begone without a word. In the outer room James Maxwell required him, as prisoner, to deliver his sword. When he had got it, he cries with a loud voice for his man to carry my lord-lieutenant's sword. This done, he makes through a number of people towards his coach, all gazing, no man capping him, before whom, that morning, the greatest of England would have stood uncovered, all crying, 'What is the matter?' He said, 'A small matter, I warrant you.' They replied, 'Yes, indeed, high treason is a small matter.' Coming to his place where he expected his coach, it was not there, so he behoved to return the same way, through a crowd of gazing people. When at last he found his coach, and was entering, James Maxwell told him, 'Your lordship is my prisoner, and must go in my coach;' so he behoved to do."
In a few days he was committed to the Tower, and the commons proceeded to deal with the rogues next in degree. Sir Francis Windebank, one of the secretaries of state, had been one of the most ready instruments of Laud, and at the same time privately a catholic, on which account he had released a number of catholic priests from prison, to the coming, Windebank did not wait for it, but procuring letters from the queen, he escaped to France, where he was well received, and subsequently threw off the mask and openly professed Catholicism. Clarendon asserts that the commons willingly let him escape, because his arrest and trial might have implicated his colleague, Sir Henry Vane, whom they did not want to touch.
The lord keeper Finch was the next delinquent aimed at. He had proved himself a most pliant instrument of the king, justifying his most oppressive measures in parliament, and a zealous enforcer of his illegal acts. He had been the great mover in the prosecution of Hampden for refusal of ship-money, and had prosecuted others severely for the same resistance. He now begged to be permitted to defend himself before the house of commons, which was permitted; and
