ts, we fall down at your majesty's feet, craving
pardon for our freedom." Again having eloquently expatiated upon the
desires of his subjects, and the laws of the kingdom, he speaks of the
laws of God and power of the church, and says, "Next, we must
distinguish betwixt the church and the state, betwixt the ecclesiastical
and civil power; both which are materially one, yet formally they are
contradistinct in power, in jurisdiction, in laws, in bodies, in ends,
in offices and officers, and although the church and ecclesiastic
assemblies thereof be formally different and distinct from the
parliament and civil judicatories, yet there is so strict and necessary
a conjunction betwixt the ecclesiastic and civil jurisdiction, betwixt
religion and justice; as the one cannot firmly subsist and be preserved
without the other, and therefore they must stand and fall, live and die
together, &c." He enlarged further upon the privileges of both church
and state, and then concluded with mentioning the sum of their desires,
which----"is that your majesty (saith he) may be graciously pleased to
command that the parliament may proceed freely to determine all these
articles given in to them, and whatsoever exceptions, objections, or
informations are made against any of the particular overtures, &c. we
are most willing to receive the same in write, and are content in the
same way, to return our answers and humble desires[113]."

March 11, the commissioners appeared, and brought their instructions,
whereupon ensued some reasonings betwixt them and the king, in which
time arch-bishop Laud, who sat on the king's right-hand, was observed to
mock the Scots commissioners, causing the king put such questions to
them as he pleased. At last Traquair gave in several queries and
objections to them, unto which they gave most solid and sufficient
answers in every particular.

But this farce being over, for it seems nothing else was here intended
by the court than to intrap the commissioners, (and particularly this
noble earl who had so strenuously asserted the laws and liberties of his
native country). In the end, all the deputies, by the king's order, were
taken into custody, and the earl of Loudon sent to the tower for a
letter alledged to be wrote by him, and sent by the Scots to the French
king, as to their sovereign, imploring his aid against their natural
king, of the following tenor:

"_SIRE_,

"Your majesty being the refuge and sanctuary of