reparations would have calmed the animosity of Strafford's enemies,
and led them to be satisfied at last with something less than his
utter destruction. But this seems not to have been the effect. The
terrible hostilities which had been gathering strength so long, seemed
to rage all the more fiercely now that there was a prospect of their
gratification. And yet it was very hard to find any thing sufficiently
distinct and tangible against the accused to warrant his conviction.
The commissioners who had been appointed to manage the case divided
the charges among them. When the trial commenced, they stated and
urged these charges in succession. Strafford, who had not known
beforehand what they were to be, replied to them, one by one, with
calmness and composure, and yet with great eloquence and power. The
extraordinary abilities which he had shown through the whole course of
his life, seemed to shine out with increased splendor amid the awful
solemnities which were now darkening its close. He was firm and
undaunted, and yet respectful and submissive. The natural excitements
of the occasion; the imposing assembly; the breathless attention; the
magnificent hall; the consciousness that the opposition which he was
struggling to stem before that great tribunal was the combined
hostility of three kingdoms, and that the torrent was flowing from a
reservoir which had been accumulating for many years; and that the
whole civilized world were looking on with great interest to watch the
result; and perhaps, more than all, that he was in the unseen presence
of his sovereign, whom he was accustomed to look upon as the greatest
personage on earth; these, and the other circumstances of the scene,
filled his mind with strong emotions, and gave animation, and energy,
and a lofty eloquence to all that he said.

The trial lasted eighteen days, the excitement increasing consistently
to the end. There was nothing proved which could with any propriety
be considered as treason. He had managed the government, it is true,
with one set of views in respect to the absolute prerogatives and
powers of the king, while those who now were in possession of power
held opposite views, and they considered it a matter of necessity that
he should die. The charge of treason was a pretext to bring the case
somewhat within the reach of the formalities of law. It is one of the
necessary incidents of all governmental systems founded on force, and
not on the consent o