iated only by blood. He had
broken faith, not only with his Great Council and with his people,
but with his own adherents. He had done what, but for an unforeseen
accident, would probably have produced a bloody conflict round the
Speaker's chair. Those who had the chief sway in the Lower House now
felt that not only their power and popularity, but their lands and
their necks, were staked on the event of the struggle in which they were
engaged. The flagging zeal of the party opposed to the court revived in
an instant. During the night which followed the outrage the whole city
of London was in arms. In a few hours the roads leading to the capital
were covered with multitudes of yeomen spurring hard to Westminster with
the badges of the parliamentary cause in their hats. In the House of
Commons the opposition became at once irresistible, and carried, by more
than two votes to one, resolutions of unprecedented violence. Strong
bodies of the trainbands, regularly relieved, mounted guard round
Westminster Hall. The gates of the King's palace were daily besieged by
a furious multitude whose taunts and execrations were heard even in
the presence chamber, and who could scarcely be kept out of the royal
apartments by the gentlemen of the household. Had Charles remained much
longer in his stormy capital, it is probable that the Commons would have
found a plea for making him, under outward forms of respect, a state
prisoner.

He quitted London, never to return till the day of a terrible and
memorable reckoning had arrived. A negotiation began which occupied
many months. Accusations and recriminations passed backward and forward
between the contending parties. All accommodation had become impossible.
The sure punishment which waits on habitual perfidy had at length
overtaken the King. It was to no purpose that he now pawned his royal
word, and invoked heaven to witness the sincerity of his professions.
The distrust with which his adversaries regarded him was not to be
removed by oaths or treaties. They were convinced that they could be
safe only when he was utterly helpless. Their demand, therefore, was,
that he should surrender, not only those prerogatives which he had
usurped in violation of ancient laws and of his own recent promises, but
also other prerogatives which the English Kings had always possessed,
and continue to possess at the present day. No minister must be
appointed, no peer created, without the consent of the House