ve saved Strafford's life if they had dared, began
to find that they could not do so without endangering their own. When
at last the vote came to be taken in the House of Lords, out of eighty
members who had been present at the trial, only forty-six were present
to vote, and the bill was passed by a vote of thirty-five to eleven.
The thirty-four who were absent were probably all against the bill,
but were afraid to appear.

The responsibility now devolved upon the king. An act of Parliament
must be signed by the king. He really enacts it. The action of the two
houses is, in theory, only a recommendation of the measure to him. The
king was determined on no account to give his consent to Strafford's
condemnation. He, however, laid the subject before his Privy Council.
They, after deliberating upon it, recommended that he should sign the
bill. Nothing else, they said, could allay the terrible storm which
was raging, and the king ought to prefer the peace and safety of the
realm to the life of any one man, however innocent he might be. The
populace, in the mean time, crowded around the king's palace at
Whitehall, calling out "_Justice! justice!_" and filling the air with
threats and imprecations; and preachers in their pulpits urged the
necessity of punishing offenders, and descanted on the iniquity which
those magistrates committed who allowed great transgressors to escape
the penalty due for their crimes.

The queen, too, was alarmed. She begged the king, with tears, not any
longer to attempt to withstand the torrent which threatened to sweep
them all away in its fury. While things were in this state, Charles
received a letter from Strafford in the Tower, expressing his consent,
and even his request, that the king should yield and sign the bill.

The Tower of London is very celebrated in English history. Though
called simply by the name of the Tower, it is, in fact, as will be
seen by the engraving in the frontispiece, an extended group of
buildings, which are of all ages, sizes, and shapes, and covering an
extensive area. It is situated below the city of London, having been
originally built as a fortification for the defense of the city. Its
use for this purpose has, however, long since passed away.

Strafford said, in his letter to the king,

"To set your Majesty's conscience at Liberty, I do most humbly
beseech your Majesty for Prevention of Evils, which may happen by
your Refusal, to pass this Bill