reets to-night. Whose fault?
Did I make kings? set up, the first, a man
To represent the multitude, receive
All love in right of them--supplant them so,
Until you love the man and not the king----
The man with the mild voice and mournful eyes
Which send me forth.
--To breast the bloody sea
That sweeps before me: with one star for guide.
Night has its first, supreme, forsaken star.

During the third act, the long Parliament is in session, and Pym is
making his great speech impeaching Wentworth.

The conditions of affairs at the time of this Parliament were well-nigh
desperate for Charles and Wentworth. Things had not gone well with the
Scottish war and Wentworth was falling more and more into disfavor.
England was now threatened with a Scottish invasion. Still, even with
this danger to face it was impossible to raise money to support the
army. The English had a suspicion that the Scotch cause was their own.
The universal demand for a Parliament could no longer be ignored; the
King, therefore, summoned it to meet on the third of November. As Firth
observes, "To Strafford this meant ruin, but he hardly realized the
greatness of the danger in which he stood. On October 8, the Scotch
Commissioners in a public paper denounced him as an incendiary, and
declared that they meant to insist on his punishment.

"As soon as the Parliament opened Charles discovered that it was
necessary for his service to have Strafford again by his side, and
summoned him to London. There is evidence that his friends urged him to
pass over to Ireland where the army rested at his devotion, or to
transport himself to foreign Kingdoms till fairer weather here should
invite him home. The Marquis of Hamilton advised him to fly, but as
Hamilton told the King, the Earl was too great-hearted to fear. Though
conscious of the peril of obedience, he set out to London to stand by
his Master."

The enmity of the Court party to Strafford is touched upon in the first
scene, and in the second, Strafford's return, unsuspecting of the great
blow that awaits him. He had indeed meditated a blow on his own part.
According to Firth, he felt that "One desperate resource remained. The
intrigues of the parliamentary leaders with the Scots had come to
Strafford's knowledge, and he had determined to impeach them of high
treason. He could prove that Pym and his friends had secretly
communicated with the rebels, and invited them to b