preserved in a letter of
the times; but it is so unmeaning, that it could have had no effect on
the king, who, however, declared that he would not admit him to an
audience, and that if he could tell where "the President of the
Rosycross" was to be found, unless he made good his offer, he would hang
him at the court-gates. This served the town and country for talk till
the appointed Sunday had passed over, and no ambassador was visible!
Some considered this as the plotting of crazy brains, but others
imagined it to be an attempt to speak with the king in private, on
matters respecting the duke.

There was also discovered, by letters received from Rome, "a whole
parliament of Jesuits sitting" in "a fair-hanged vault" in
Clerkenwell.[300] Sir John Cooke would have alarmed the parliament, that
on St. Joseph's day these were to have occupied their places; ministers
are supposed sometimes to have conspirators for "the nonce;" Sir Dudley
Digges, in the opposition, as usual, would not believe in any such
political necromancers; but such a party were discovered; Cooke would
have insinuated that the French ambassador had persuaded Louis that the
divisions between Charles and his people had been raised by his
ingenuity, and was rewarded for the intelligence; this is not unlikely.
After all, the parliament of Jesuits might have been a secret college of
the order; for, among other things seized on, was a considerable
library.

When the parliament was sitting, a sealed letter was thrown under the
door, with this superscription, _Cursed be the man that finds this
letter, and delivers it not to the House of Commons_. The
Serjeant-at-Arms delivered it to the Speaker, who would not open it till
the house had chosen a committee of twelve members to inform them
whether it was fit to be read. Sir Edward Coke, after having read two or
three lines, stopped, and according to my authority, "durst read no
further, but immediately sealing it, the committee thought fit to send
it to the king, who they say, on reading it through, cast it into the
fire, and sent the House of Commons thanks for their wisdom in not
publishing it, and for the discretion of the committee in so far
tendering his honour, as not to read it out, when they once perceived
that it touched his majesty."[301]

Others, besides the freedom of speech, introduced another form, "A
speech without doors," which was distributed to the members of the
house. It is in all respects a re