not get the best of it. But on the thirteenth
day of the trial, Pym produced in the House of Commons a copy of some
notes of a council, found by young SIR HARRY VANE in a red velvet cabinet
belonging to his father (Secretary Vane, who sat at the council-table
with the Earl), in which Strafford had distinctly told the King that he
was free from all rules and obligations of government, and might do with
his people whatever he liked; and in which he had added--'You have an
army in Ireland that you may employ to reduce this kingdom to obedience.'
It was not clear whether by the words 'this kingdom,' he had really meant
England or Scotland; but the Parliament contended that he meant England,
and this was treason. At the same sitting of the House of Commons it was
resolved to bring in a bill of attainder declaring the treason to have
been committed: in preference to proceeding with the trial by
impeachment, which would have required the treason to be proved.

So, a bill was brought in at once, was carried through the House of
Commons by a large majority, and was sent up to the House of Lords. While
it was still uncertain whether the House of Lords would pass it and the
King consent to it, Pym disclosed to the House of Commons that the King
and Queen had both been plotting with the officers of the army to bring
up the soldiers and control the Parliament, and also to introduce two
hundred soldiers into the Tower of London to effect the Earl's escape.
The plotting with the army was revealed by one GEORGE GORING, the son of
a lord of that name: a bad fellow who was one of the original plotters,
and turned traitor. The King had actually given his warrant for the
admission of the two hundred men into the Tower, and they would have got
in too, but for the refusal of the governor--a sturdy Scotchman of the
name of BALFOUR--to admit them. These matters being made public, great
numbers of people began to riot outside the Houses of Parliament, and to
cry out for the execution of the Earl of Strafford, as one of the King's
chief instruments against them. The bill passed the House of Lords while
the people were in this state of agitation, and was laid before the King
for his assent, together with another bill declaring that the Parliament
then assembled should not be dissolved or adjourned without their own
consent. The King--not unwilling to save a faithful servant, though he
had no great attachment for him--was in some doubt what t