Strafford had for a moment awed and melted
a victorious party inflamed with just resentment, the hall where
Charles had confronted the High Court of Justice with the placid
courage which has half redeemed his fame. Neither military nor
civil pomp was wanting. The avenues were lined with grenadiers.
The streets were kept clear by cavalry. The peers, robed in gold
and ermine, were marshalled by the heralds under Garter
King-at-Arms. The judges in their vestments of state attended to
give advice on points of law. Near a hundred and seventy lords,
three-fourths of the Upper House as the Upper House then was,
walked in solemn order from their usual place of assembling to the
tribunal. The junior Baron present led the way, George Eliot, Lord
Heathfield, recently ennobled for his memorable defence of
Gibraltar against the fleets and armies of France and Spain. The
long procession was closed by the Duke of Norfolk, Earl Marshal of
the realm, by the great dignitaries, and by the brothers and sons
of the King. Last of all came the Prince of Wales, conspicuous by
his fine person and noble bearing. The grey old walls were hung
with scarlet. The long galleries were crowded by an audience such
as has rarely excited the fears or the emulation of an orator.
There were gathered together, from all parts of a great, free,
enlightened, and prosperous empire, grace and female loveliness,
wit and learning, the representatives of every science and of
every art. There were seated round the Queen the fair-haired young
daughters of the House of Brunswick. There the Ambassadors of
great Kings and Commonwealths gazed with admiration on a spectacle
which no other country in the world could present. There Siddons,
in the prime of her majestic beauty, looked with emotion on a
scene surpassing all the imitations of the stage. There the
historian of the Roman Empire thought of the days when Cicero
pleaded the cause of Sicily against Verres, and when, before a
senate which still retained some show of freedom, Tacitus
thundered against the oppressor of Africa. There were seen, side
by side, the greatest painter and the greatest scholar of the age.
The spectacle had allured Reynolds from that easel which has
preserved to us the thoughtful foreheads of so many writers and
statesmen, and the sweet smiles of so many