ary power which is so
justly abhorred by Englishmen?" [32]

Jeffreys spoke against the motion in the coarse and savage style of
which he was a master; but he soon found that it was not quite so easy
to browbeat the proud and powerful barons of England in their own
hall, as to intimidate advocates whose bread depended on his favour
or prisoners whose necks were at his mercy. A man whose life has been
passed in attacking and domineering, whatever may be his talents and
courage, generally makes a mean figure when he is vigorously assailed,
for, being unaccustomed to stand on the defensive, he becomes confused;
and the knowledge that all those whom he has insulted are enjoying his
confusion confuses him still more. Jeffreys was now, for the first
time since he had become a great man, encountered on equal terms by
adversaries who did not fear him. To the general delight, he passed at
once from the extreme of insolence to the extreme of meanness, and could
not refrain from weeping with rage and vexation. [33] Nothing indeed was
wanting to his humiliation; for the House was crowded by about a hundred
peers, a larger number than had voted even on the great day of the
Exclusion Bill. The King, too, was present. His brother had been in the
habit of attending the sittings of the Lords for amusement, and used
often to say that a debate was as entertaining as a comedy. James came,
not to be diverted, but in the hope that his presence might impose some
restraint on the discussion. He was disappointed. The sense of the
House was so strongly manifested that, after a closing speech, of great
keenness, from Halifax, the courtiers did not venture to divide. An
early day was fixed for taking the royal speech into consideration;
and it was ordered that every peer who was not at a distance from
Westminster should be in his place. [34]

On the following morning the King came down, in his robes, to the House
of Lords. The Usher of the Black Rod summoned the Commons to the bar;
and the Chancellor announced that the Parliament was prorogued to the
tenth of February. [35] The members who had voted against the court were
dismissed from the public service. Charles Fox quitted the Pay Office.
The Bishop of London ceased to be Dean of the Chapel Royal, and his name
was struck out of the list of Privy Councillors.

The effect of the prorogation was to put an end to a legal proceeding of
the highest importance. Thomas Grey, Earl of Stamford, sprung f