number of members
gradually rose to one hundred and fifty, though it was seldom that the
attendance of one-half, or even of one-third, could be procured.

During the war, the dread of retaliation had taught the two parties to
temper with moderation the license of victory. Little blood had been
shed except in the field of battle. But now that check was removed. The
fanatics, not satisfied with the death of the king, demanded, with the
Bible in their hands, additional victims; and the politicians deemed it
prudent by the display of punishment to restrain the machinations of their
enemies. Among the royalists in custody were the duke of Hamilton (who was
also earl of Cambridge in England), the earl of Holland, Goring, earl of
Norwich, the Lord Capel, and Sir John Owen, all engaged in the last attempt
for the restoration of Charles to the throne. By a resolution of the House
of Commons in November, Hamilton had been adjudged to pay a fine of
one hundred thousand pounds, and the other four to remain in perpetual
imprisonment; but after the triumph of the Independents, this vote had been
rescinded,[a] and a high court of justice was now established to try the
same persons on a charge of high treason. It was in vain that Hamilton
pleaded[b] the order of the Scottish parliament under which he had acted;
that Capel demanded to be brought before his peers, or a jury of his
countrymen, according to those fundamental laws which the parliament had
promised to maintain; that all invoked the national faith in favour of that
quarter which they had obtained at the time of their surrender. Bradshaw,
the president, delivered the opinions of the court. To Hamilton, he
replied,

[Sidenote a: A.D. 1649. Feb. 1.]
[Sidenote b: A.D. 1649. Feb. 10.]

that, as an English earl, he was amenable to the justice of the country; to
Capel, that the court had been established by the parliament, the supreme
authority to which all must submit; to each, that quarter given on the
field of battle insured protection from the sword of the conqueror, but not
from the vengeance of the law. All five were condemned[a] to lose their
heads; but the rigour of the judgment was softened[b] by a reference to
the mercy of parliament. The next day the wives of Holland and Capel,
accompanied by a long train of females in mourning, appeared at the bar, to
solicit the pardon of the condemned. Though their petitions were rejected,
a respite for two days was granted. This fa