try the queen's
accomplices.]

[Sidenote: The queen and her brother to be tried by the House of Lords.]

Men are apt to pass vaguely over the words "a commission" or "a jury,"
regarding them rather as mechanical abstractions than as bodies of
responsible men. I shall therefore give the list of the persons who, in
these or any other capacities, were engaged upon the trials. The special
commission consisted of Sir Thomas Audeley, the lord chancellor; the
Duke of Norfolk, uncle of the queen and of Lord Rochfort; the Duke of
Suffolk, the king's brother-in-law; the Earl of Wiltshire, the queen's
father; the Earls of Oxford, Westmoreland, and Sussex; Lord Sandys;
Thomas Cromwell; Sir William Fitzwilliam the Lord High Admiral, an old
man whose career had been of the most distinguished brilliancy; Sir
William Paulet, lord treasurer, afterwards Marquis of Winchester; and,
finally, the nine judges of the Courts of Westminster, Sir John
Fitzjames, Sir John Baldewyn, Sir Richard Lister, Sir John Porte, Sir
John Spelman, Sir Walter Luke, Sir Anthony Fitzherbert, Sir Thomas
Englefield, and Sir William Shelley. The duty of this tribunal was to
try the four commoners accused of adultery with the queen. She herself,
with her brother, would be tried by the House of Lords. Of the seven
peers, three were her own nearest connexions; the remaining
commissioners were those who, individually and professionally, might
have been considered competent for the conduct of the cause above all
other persons in the realm. Antecedently to experience, we should not
have expected that a commission so constituted would have lent itself to
a conspiracy; and if foul play had been intended, we should have looked
to see some baser instruments selected for so iniquitous a purpose.

[Sidenote: Wednesday, May 10. True bill found by the grand jury of
Middlesex.]

In the middle of the second week in May, the grand juries had completed
their work. On the 10th, a true bill was found at Westminster, by the
oaths of Giles Heron, Esq.; Roger More, Esq.; Richard Awnsham, Esq.;
Thomas Byllyngton, Esq.; Gregory Lovel, Esq.; John Worsop, Esq.; William
Goddard, gentleman; William Blakwall, gentleman; John Wylford,
gentleman; William Berd, gentleman; Henry Hubbylthorne, gentleman;
William Huning, gentleman; Robert Walys, gentleman; John Englond,
gentleman; Henry Lodysman, gentleman; and John Averey, gentleman.

[Sidenote: Thursday, May 11. True bill found by the grand ju