himself to be accounted to have as much skill in the law as any man in
England, and therefore needed no such help, nor feared to be judged by the
law. He knew his Majesty might easily find, in such a one as he, whereby
to take away his head; but for this he feared not what could be said.

"I have heard you affirm," said Lord Arundel, "that by law, he that should
go about to withdraw the subjects' hearts from their king was a traitor."
Sir Edward answered, "That he held him an arch-traitor."

James I. said of Coke, "That he had so many shifts that, throw him where
you would, he still fell upon his legs."

This affair ended with putting Sir Edward Coke on his knees before the
council-table, with an order to retire to a private life, to correct his
book of Reports, and occasionally to consult the king himself. This
part of Coke's history is fully opened in Mr. Alexander Chalmers's
"Biographical Dictionary."]

* * * * *

THE KING'S ELEVATED CONCEPTION OF THE KINGLY CHARACTER.

But what were the real thoughts and feelings of this presumed despot
concerning the duties of a sovereign? His Platonic conceptions inspired
the most exalted feelings; but his gentle nature never led to one act of
unfeeling despotism. His sceptre was wreathed with the roses of his fancy:
the iron of arbitrary power only struck into the heart in the succeeding
reign. James only menaced with an abstract notion; or, in anger, with his
own hand would tear out a protestation from the journals of the Commons:
and, when he considered a man as past forgiveness, he condemned him to a
slight imprisonment; or removed him to a distant employment; or, if an
author, like Coke and Cowell, sent him into retirement to correct his
works.

In a great court of judicature, when the interference of the royal
authority was ardently solicited, the magnanimous monarch replied:--

"Kings ruled by their laws, as God did by the laws of nature; and ought as
rarely to put in use their supreme authority as God does his power of
working miracles."

Notwithstanding his abstract principles, his knowledge and reflection
showed him that there is a crisis in monarchies and a period in empires;
and in discriminating between a king and a tyrant, he tells the prince--

"A tyranne's miserable and infamous life armeth in end his own subjects to
become his burreaux; and although this rebellion be ever unlawful on their
part, yet is the world so wear