hat he felt now more happy than any of his predecessors. Inquiring of
Sir John by how many voices he had carried it? Cooke replied, "But by
one!"--at which his majesty seemed appalled, and asked how many were
against him? Cooke answered, "None! the unanimity of the House made all
but _one voice_!" at which his majesty wept![303] If Charles shed tears,
or as Cooke himself expresses it, in his report to the House, "was much
affected," the emotion was profound: for on all sudden emergencies
Charles displayed an almost unparalleled command over the exterior
violence of his feelings.

The favourite himself sympathised with the tender joy of his royal
master; and, before the king, voluntarily offered himself as a
peace-sacrifice. In his speech at the council-table, he entreats the
king that he, who had the honour to be his majesty's favourite, might
now give up that title to them.--A warm genuine feeling probably
prompted these words:--

"To open my heart, please to pardon me a word more; I must confess I
have long lived in pain, sleep hath given me no rest, favours and
fortune no content; such have been my secret sorrows, to be thought
the man of separation, and that divided the king from his people, and
them from him; but I hope it shall appear they were some mistaken
minds that would have made me the evil spirit that walketh between a
good master and a loyal people."[304]

Buckingham added, that for the good of his country he was willing to
sacrifice his honours; and since his plurality of offices had been so
strongly excepted against,[305] that he was content to give up the
Master of the Horse to Marquess Hamilton, and the Warden of the Cinque
Ports to the Earl of Carlisle; and was willing that the parliament
should appoint another admiral for all services at sea.

It is as certain as human evidence can authenticate, that on the king's
side all was grateful affection; and that on Buckingham's there was a
most earnest desire to win the favours of parliament; and what are
stronger than all human evidence, those unerring principles in human
nature itself, which are the secret springs of the heart, were working
in the breasts of the king and his minister; for neither were
tyrannical. The king undoubtedly sighed to meet parliament with the love
which he had at first professed; he declared that "he should now rejoice
to meet with his people often." Charles had no innate tyranny in his
constitutional cha