nder Buckingham's command for the relief of Rochelle. But imposing as
was his force, Buckingham showed himself as incapable a soldier as he
had proved a statesman. The troops were landed on the Isle of Rhe, in
front of the harbour; but after a useless siege of the Castle of St.
Martin, the English soldiers were forced in October to fall back along a
narrow causeway to their ships, and two thousand fell in the retreat
without the loss of a single man to their enemies.

[Sidenote: The Parliament of 1628.]

The first result of the failure at Rhe was the summoning of a new
Parliament. Overwhelmed as he was with debt and shame, Charles was
forced to call the Houses together again in the spring of 1628. The
elections promised ill for the Court. Its candidates were everywhere
rejected. The patriot leaders were triumphantly returned. To have
suffered in the recent resistance to arbitrary taxation was the sure
road to a seat. It was this question which absorbed all others in men's
minds. Even Buckingham's removal was of less moment than the redress of
personal wrongs; and some of the chief leaders of the Commons had not
hesitated to bring Charles to consent to summon Parliament by promising
to abstain from attacks on Buckingham. Against such a resolve Eliot
protested in vain. But on the question of personal liberty the tone of
the Commons when they met in March was as vehement as that of Eliot. "We
must vindicate our ancient liberties," said Sir Thomas Wentworth in
words soon to be remembered against himself: "we must reinforce the laws
made by our ancestors. We must set such a stamp upon them, as no
licentious spirit shall dare hereafter to invade them." Heedless of
sharp and menacing messages from the king, of demands that they should
take his "royal word" for their liberties, the House bent itself to one
great work, the drawing up a Petition of Right. The statutes that
protected the subject against arbitrary taxation, against loans and
benevolences, against punishment, outlawry, or deprivation of goods,
otherwise than by lawful judgement of his peers, against arbitrary
imprisonment without stated charge, against billeting of soldiery on the
people or enactment of martial law in time of peace, were formally
recited. The breaches of them under the last two sovereigns, and above
all since the dissolution of the last Parliament, were recited as
formally. At the close of this significant list, the Commons prayed
"that no man here