you had been pleased to have observed what
was hinted to you by the Court, at your first coming hither, you
would have known by what authority; which authority requires
you, in the name of the people of England, of which you are
elected king, to answer them.

KING--No. Sir, I deny that.

LORD PRESIDENT--If you acknowledge not the authority of the
Court, they must proceed.

KING--I do tell them so; England was never an elective kingdom,
but an hereditary kingdom, for near these thousand years;
therefore let me know by what authority I am called hither. I do
stand more for the Liberty of my people, than any here that come
to be my pretended Judges; and therefore let me know by what
lawful authority I am seated here, and I will answer it;
otherwise I will not answer it.

LORD PRESIDENT--Sir, how really you have managed your trust, is
known: your way of answer is to interrogate the Court, which
beseems not you in this condition. You have been told of it
twice or thrice.

KING--Here is a gentleman, lieutenant-colonel Cobbet; ask him,
if he did not bring me from the Isle of Wight by force. I do not
come here as submitting to the Court: I will stand as much for
the privilege of the house of commons, rightly understood, as
any man here whatsoever. I see no house of lords here that may
constitute a parliament; and the king too should have been. Is
this the bringing of the king to his parliament? Is this the
bringing an end to the Treaty in the public faith of the world?
Let me see a legal authority warranted by the Word of God, the
Scriptures, or warranted by the Constitutions of the kingdom,
and I will answer.

LORD PRESIDENT--Sir; You have propounded a question, and have
been answered. Seeing you will not answer, the Court will
consider how to proceed; in the mean time, those that brought
you hither, are to take charge of you back again. The Court
desires to know, whether this be all the Answer you will give or
no.

KING--Sir, I desire that you would give me, and all the world,
satisfaction in this: let me tell you, it is not a slight thing
you are about, I am sworn to keep the peace, by that duty I owe
to God and my country, and I will do it to the last breath of my
body; and therefore ye shall do well to satisfy first God, and
then the country, by what