of the judges said that was quite true, and Mr.
Hampden was bound to pay: five of the judges said that was quite false,
and Mr. Hampden was not bound to pay. So, the King triumphed (as he
thought), by making Hampden the most popular man in England; where
matters were getting to that height now, that many honest Englishmen
could not endure their country, and sailed away across the seas to found
a colony in Massachusetts Bay in America. It is said that Hampden
himself and his relation OLIVER CROMWELL were going with a company of
such voyagers, and were actually on board ship, when they were stopped by
a proclamation, prohibiting sea captains to carry out such passengers
without the royal license. But O! it would have been well for the King
if he had let them go! This was the state of England. If Laud had been
a madman just broke loose, he could not have done more mischief than he
did in Scotland. In his endeavours (in which he was seconded by the
King, then in person in that part of his dominions) to force his own
ideas of bishops, and his own religious forms and ceremonies upon the
Scotch, he roused that nation to a perfect frenzy. They formed a solemn
league, which they called The Covenant, for the preservation of their own
religious forms; they rose in arms throughout the whole country; they
summoned all their men to prayers and sermons twice a day by beat of
drum; they sang psalms, in which they compared their enemies to all the
evil spirits that ever were heard of; and they solemnly vowed to smite
them with the sword. At first the King tried force, then treaty, then a
Scottish Parliament which did not answer at all. Then he tried the EARL
OF STRAFFORD, formerly Sir Thomas Wentworth; who, as LORD WENTWORTH, had
been governing Ireland. He, too, had carried it with a very high hand
there, though to the benefit and prosperity of that country.

Strafford and Laud were for conquering the Scottish people by force of
arms. Other lords who were taken into council, recommended that a
Parliament should at last be called; to which the King unwillingly
consented. So, on the thirteenth of April, one thousand six hundred and
forty, that then strange sight, a Parliament, was seen at Westminster. It
is called the Short Parliament, for it lasted a very little while. While
the members were all looking at one another, doubtful who would dare to
speak, MR. PYM arose and set forth all that the King had done unlawfully
during