d Bands of
London and Southwark on foot, and the London watermen on the river, all
sworn "to guard the Parliament, the Kingdom, and the King," escorted Pym
and his fellow-members along the Thames to the House of Commons. Both
sides prepared for a struggle which was now inevitable. The Queen sailed
from Dover with the Crown jewels to buy munitions of war. The Cavaliers
again gathered round the king, and the royalist press flooded the
country with State papers drawn up by Hyde. On the other hand, the
Commons resolved by vote to secure the great arsenals of the kingdom,
Hull, Portsmouth, and the Tower; while mounted processions of
freeholders from Buckinghamshire and Kent traversed London on their way
to St. Stephen's, vowing to live and die with the Parliament.

[Sidenote: Preparations for war.]

The Lords were scared out of their policy of obstruction by Pym's bold
announcement of the position taken by the House of Commons. "The
Commons," said their leader, "will be glad to have your concurrence and
help in saving the kingdom: but if they fail of it, it should not
discourage them in doing their duty. And whether the kingdom be lost or
saved, they shall be sorry that the story of this present Parliament
should tell posterity that in so great a danger and extremity the House
of Commons should be enforced to save the kingdom alone." The effect of
these words was seen in the passing of the bill for excluding bishops
from the House of Lords, the last act of this Parliament to which
Charles gave his assent. The great point however was to secure armed
support from the nation at large, and here both sides were in a
difficulty. Previous to the innovations introduced by the Tudors, and
which had been taken away by the bill against pressing soldiers, the
king in himself had no power of calling on his subjects generally to
bear arms, save for the purposes of restoring order or meeting foreign
invasion. On the other hand no one contended that such a power has ever
been exercised by the two Houses without the king; and Charles steadily
refused to consent to a Militia bill, in which the command of the
national force was given in every county to men devoted to the
Parliamentary cause. Both parties therefore broke through constitutional
precedent, the Parliament in appointing Lord Lieutenants of the Militia
by ordinance of the two Houses, Charles in levying forces by royal
commissions of array.

[Sidenote: Outbreak of war.]

But the