Diary
as "the most gloomy, sad, and dismal day for England that happened for
five hundred years!"

On this fatal day,[321] the Speaker still refusing to put the question,
and announcing the king's command for an adjournment, Sir John Eliot
stood up! The Speaker attempted to leave the chair, but two members,
who had placed themselves on each side, forcibly kept him down--Eliot,
who had prepared "a short declaration," flung down a paper on the floor,
crying out that it might be read! His party vociferated for the
reading--others that it should not. A sudden tumult broke out; Coriton,
a fervent patriot, struck another member, and many laid their hands on
their swords.[322] "Shall we," said one, "be sent home as we were last
sessions, turned off like scattered sheep?" The weeping, trembling
Speaker, still persisting in what he held to be his duty, was dragged to
and fro by opposite parties; but neither he nor the clerk would read the
paper, though the Speaker was bitterly reproached by his kinsman, Sir
Peter Hayman, "as the disgrace of his country, and a blot to a noble
family." Eliot, finding the house so strongly divided, undauntedly
snatching up the paper, said, "I shall then express that by my tongue
which this paper should have done." Denzil Holles assumed the character
of Speaker, putting the question: it was returned by the acclamations of
the party. The doors were locked and the keys laid on the table. The
king sent for the serjeant and mace, but the messenger could obtain no
admittance--the usher of the black rod met no more regard. The king then
ordered out his guard--in the meanwhile the protest was completed. The
door was flung open, the rush of the members was so impetuous that the
crowd carried away among them the serjeant and the usher in the
confusion and riot. Many of the members were struck by horror amidst
this conflict, it was a sad image of the future! Several of the patriots
were committed to the Tower. The king on dissolving this parliament,
which was the last till the memorable "Long Parliament," gives us, at
least, his idea of it:--"It is far from me to judge all the House alike
guilty, for there are there as dutiful subjects as any in the world; it
being but some few vipers among them that did cast this mist of
undutifulness over most of their eyes."[323]

Thus have I traced, step by step, the secret history of Charles the
First and his early Parliaments. I have entered into their feelings,
while