As
such action affected the privileges of the House, a committee was
appointed to send a reply to the king in due course. Baffled in this
direction, the king despatched a message to the lord mayor forbidding him
to call out the trained bands at the order of the Commons, but only to
raise such a force as might be necessary to put down tumult and
disorder.(493) Gurney was in bed at the time, but he promised to see to it
in the morning.(494)

(M208)

When the Commons met the next morning (4 Jan.) they sent up the articles
of impeachment to the House of Lords as a scandalous paper. The king in
the meantime was taking steps to secure the Tower and the city. He had
heard that six pieces of ordnance had been removed from the artillery yard
and placed near the Leadenhall, and he wrote to the mayor bidding him see
that they were used only for the guard and preservation of the city if
need be.(495) It was these measures that caused the Commons to send Soame,
Pennington and Venn to the city to inform the citizens of the impending
danger. On the afternoon of the same day Charles himself appeared in the
House, to the door of which he had been accompanied by an armed retinue.
Taking his stand before the Speaker's chair he professed sorrow for the
necessity that had brought him there. Yesterday he had sent, he said, a
Sergeant-at-Arms to apprehend certain persons accused of high treason. He
had expected obedience and not an answer. Careful as he was and always
would be of the privileges of the Commons, they were to know that there
was no privilege in matters of treason. Failing himself to discover those
whom he sought, he turned to Lenthall and asked him if they were in the
House. "Do you see any of them?" The Speaker's reply was singularly apt.
"May it please your majesty," said he, falling on his knee before Charles,
"I have neither eyes to see nor tongue to speak in this place but as this
House is pleased to direct me, whose servant I am here." Casting one more
glance round the House, and finding that the "birds had flown," the king
withdrew amid cries of "Privilege! Privilege!" and the House immediately
adjourned.

(M209)

The king could not allow matters to rest here. The next morning, being
Wednesday, the 5th January, he set out for the city with a small retinue,
and presented himself at the Guildhall when a Court of Common Council was
sitting. The city's archives are searched in vain for any record of what
took place on t