e time-servers who had
been swept along by the tide of popular passion, but who had believed
its force to be spent, and looked forward to a new triumph of the Crown.

[Sidenote: The Remonstrance.]

With a broken Parliament, and perils gathering without, Pym resolved to
appeal for aid to the nation itself. The Grand Remonstrance which he
laid before the House of Commons in November was in effect an appeal to
the country at large. It is this purpose that accounts for its unusual
form. The Remonstrance was more an elaborate State-Paper than a petition
to the king. It told in a detailed narrative the work which the
Parliament had done, the difficulties it had surmounted, and the new
dangers which lay in its path. The Parliament had been charged with a
design to abolish Episcopacy, it declared its purpose to be simply that
of reducing the power of bishops. Politically it repudiated the taunt of
revolutionary aims. It demanded only the observance of the existing
laws against recusancy, securities for the due administration of
justice, and the employment of ministers who possessed the confidence of
Parliament. The new king's party fought fiercely against its adoption;
debate followed debate; the sittings were prolonged till lights had to
be brought in; and it was only at midnight, and by a majority of eleven,
that the Remonstrance was finally adopted. On an attempt of the minority
to offer a formal protest against a subsequent vote for its publication
the slumbering passion broke out into a flame. "Some waved their hats
over their heads, and others took their swords in their scabbards out of
their belts, and held them by the pommels in their hands, setting the
lower part on the ground." Only Hampden's coolness and tact averted a
conflict. The Remonstrance was felt on both sides to be a crisis in the
struggle. "Had it been rejected," said Cromwell as he left the House, "I
would have sold to-morrow all I possess, and left England for ever!" It
was presented to Charles on the first of December, and the king listened
to it sullenly; but it kindled afresh the spirit of the country. London
swore to live and die with the Parliament; associations were formed in
every county for the defence of the Houses; and when the guard which the
Commons had asked for in the panic of the army plot was withdrawn by the
king, the populace crowded down to Westminster to take its place.

[Sidenote: Cavaliers and Roundheads.]

The gathering passion s