among the barons, who were concerned to secure their past treasons by
committing new acts of violence against their sovereign, she expected
to be seconded by the fury of the populace, the most dangerous of all
instruments, and the least answerable for their excesses. A charge was
drawn up against the king, in which, even though it was framed by his
inveterate enemies, nothing but his narrow genius, or his misfortunes,
were objected to him; for the greatest malice found no particular crime
with which it could reproach this unhappy prince. He was accused of
incapacity for government, of wasting his time in idle amusements, of
neglecting public business, of being swayed by evil counsellors, of
having lost, by his misconduct, the kingdom of Scotland, and part of
Guienne; and to swell the charge, even the death of some barons, and the
imprisonment of some prelates, convicted of treason, were laid to his
account.[**] It was in vain, amidst the violence of arms and tumult of
the people, to appeal either to law or to reason: the deposition of the
king, without any appearing opposition, was voted by parliament: the
prince, already declared regent by his party,[***] was placed on the
throne: and a deputation was sent to Edward at Kenilworth, to require
his resignation, which menaces and terror soon extorted from him.

* Walsing. p. 126. Murimuth, p. 68.

** Knyghton, p. 2765, 2766. Brady's App. No. 72.

*** Rymer, vol. iv. p. 137. Walsing, p. 125.

But it was impossible that the people, however corrupted by the
barbarity of the times, still further inflamed by faction, could
forever remain insensible to the voice of nature. Here a wife had first
deserted, next invaded, and then dethroned her husband; had made her
minor son an instrument in this unnatural treatment of his father; had,
by lying pretences, seduced the nation into a rebellion against
their sovereign had pushed them into violence and cruelties that had
dishonored them: all those circumstances were so odious in themselves,
and formed such a complicated scene of guilt, that the least reflection
sufficed to open men's eyes, and make them detest this flagrant
infringement of every public and private duty. The suspicions which soon
arose of Isabella's criminal commerce with Mortimer, the proofs which
daily broke out of this part of her guilt, increased the general
abhorrence against her; and her hypocrisy, in publicly bewailing with
tears the king's unh