sacrifice to
their anger, rather than be reserved for that public justice which he
knew must be executed upon him.

He was now known to be that Felton who had served in the army. Being
carried into a private room, it was thought proper so far to dissemble
as to tell him, that Buckingham was only grievously wounded, but not
without hopes of recovery. Felton smiled, and told them, that the duke,
he knew full well, had received a blow which had terminated all their
hopes. When asked at whose instigation he had performed the horrid deed,
he replied, that they needed not to trouble themselves in that inquiry;
that no man living had credit enough with him to have disposed him to
such an action; that he had not even intrusted his purpose to any one;
that the resolution proceeded only from himself, and the impulse of
his own conscience; and that his motives would appear, if his hat were
found; for that, believing he should perish in the attempt, he had there
taken care to explain them.[*]

When the king was informed of this assassination, he received the
news in public with an unmoved and undisturbed countenance; and the
courtiers, who studied his looks, concluded, that secretly he was
not displeased to be rid of a minister so generally odious to the
nation.[**]

* Clarendon, vol. i. p. 27, 20.

** Warwick, p. 34.

But Charles's command of himself proceeded entirely from the gravity and
composure of his temper. He was still as much as ever attached to
his favorite; and during his whole life he retained an affection for
Buckingham's friends, and a prejudice against his enemies. He urged too,
that Felton should be put to the question, in order to extort from him a
discovery of his accomplices; but the judges declared, that though that
practice had formerly been very usual, it was altogether illegal: so
much reasoners, with regard to law, had they become from the jealous
scruples of the house of commons.

Meanwhile the distress of Rochelle had risen to the utmost extremity.
That vast genius of Richelieu, which made him form the greatest
enterprises, led him to attempt their execution by means equally great
and extraordinary. In order to deprive Rochelle of all succor, he had
dared to project the throwing across the harbor a mole of a mile's
extent in that boisterous ocean; and having executed his project, he now
held the town closely blockaded on all sides. The inhabitants, though
pressed with the greatest rigors