of necessity, when justice is dragged to the bar. Before these was he accused as a tyrant and traitor, by a babbling and brazen-faced solicitor; at which foul appellation his Majesty smiled, but vouchsafed no reply.

And these nefarious men, who so long thirsted for his blood, now brutishly resolved to suck it, and sentence was given upon him on Saturday, January 27th, 1648, at Westminster Hall, whence by noon he was brought back to St. James's.

B

CHAPTER X.

ISHOP JUXON was not admitted to

the King until the evening of Sunday,

though his Majesty had desired he might attend him to make preparation for death, and the murder was resolved on for Tuesday. But this thwarting of his will and other many things did he suffer, so conformable to Christ his King, as did alleviate the sense of them in him, and also instruct him to a correspondent patience and charity. When the barbarous soldiers cried out at his departure, 'Justice, justice! Execution, execution!' this Prince, in imitation of that most holy King, pitied their blind fury, and said,—

'Poor souls! for a piece of money would they do as much for their commanders!'

As he passed along, some in defiance spit

upon his garments; and one or two, as it was reported, polluted his majestic countenance with their unclean spittle; also into his very face they blowed their stinking tobacco, which all men knew was very distasteful to him; and in the way where he was to go, just at his feet, they flung down pieces of their nasty pipes. Such as pulled off their hats, or bowed to him, they beat with their fists and weapons, and knocked down one dead, but for crying out, 'God be merciful to him!'

After his foul murder they pulled down his statue which was placed at the west end of St. Paul's Church, and that other in the Old Exchange; and forced from my Lord of London, whom they left prisoner, all those papers his Majesty had delivered to him, also making a most narrow search of his clothes and cabinets.

But that which they would have laid hold on had escaped their search, and was even then being published to the world. For the 'Eikon Basilike,' the book of his meditations and soliloquies, had been begun by his Majesty

at Oxford, long before he went thence to the Scots, under the title of 'Suspiria Regalia,' and the manuscript itself, being lost at Naseby, was restored to him at Hampton Court by Major Hutchinson, who had obtained it from Fairfax. Mr. Thomas Herbert, who waited on his Majesty in his bedchamber, frequently saw it, and saw the King divers times writing further on in that very copy which Bishop Duppe, by his Majesty's direction, sent to Mr. Royston, a bookseller, at the Angel in Ivy Lane, on the 23rd day of December, 1648, who made such expedition the impression was finished before the 30th day of January, on which day his Majesty died.

His very assassins confessed the goodness of this book, though they were ashamed he whom they had murdered should be the author. For Bradshaw, in his examination of Royston, who printed it, asked him,—

'How he could think so bad a man could write so good a book?'

And Royston, that printed it, did testify that the King had sent to him, the Michaelmas

before his death, to provide a press for some papers he would afterwards send to him, which were these, together with a design for a picture before the book, which at first was three crowns (being England, Ireland, and Scotland) indented on a crown of thorns, but afterwards the King recalled that, and sent that other, which is now before his book.

Some small mention of this have I already made, but these particulars reaching my ears, made me desirous of recording them, that my sweet child may hereafter be well assured thereupon. And so, having diverged somewhat from my narration, will I, in this place, mention some of the King's ordinary virtues to gratify posterity (if that my poor words should by any means reach so far), men-not to speak of mine own sex-being always curious to know all, even the minutest passages of great and virtuous persons.

And first, as regarding children, his Majesty deemed them precious as a flower of his crown; so when they grew on to manhood his care relaxed not, for when noble youths came to