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and between thirty and forty secular nobles, all Protestants.The two Secretaries of State, Middleton and Preston, though ■not peers of England, were in attendance. The King himselfpresided. The traces of severe bodily and mental sufferingwere discernible in his countenance and deportment. Heopened the proceedings by referring to the petition which hadbeen put into his hands just before he set out for Salisbury.The prayer of that petition was that he would convoke a freeParliament. Situated as he then was, he had not, he said,thought it right to comply. But, during his absence fromLondon, great changes had taken place. He had also ob-served that his people everywhere seemed anxious that theHouses should meet. He had therefore commanded theattendance of his faithful Peers, in order to ask their counsel.

For a time there was silence. Then Oxford, whose pedi-gree, unrivalled in antiquity and splendour, gave him a kindof primacy in the meeting, said that in his opinion those Lordswho had signed the petition to which His Majesty had referredought now to explain their views.

These words called up Rochester. He defended the pe-tition, and declared that he still saw no hope for the throne orthe country but in a Parliament. He would not, he said, ven-ture to affirm that, in so disastrous an extremity, even thatremedy would be efficacious: but he had no other remedy topropose. He added that it might be advisable to open a ne-gotiation with the Prince of Orange. Jeffreys and Go-dolphin followed; and both declared that they agreed withRochester.

Then Clarendon rose, and, to the astonishment of all whoremembered his loud professions of loyalty, and the agony ofshame and sorrow into which he had been thrown, only a fewdays before, by the news of his son’s defection, broke forthinto a vehement invective against tyranny and Popery. “Evennow,” he said, “His Majesty is raising in London a regimentinto which no Protestant is admitted.” “That is not true,”cried James, in great agitation from the head of the board.Clarendon persisted, and left this offensive topic only to passto a topic still more offensive. He accused the unfortunateMacaulay, History. 111. 21

CHAP.

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1688 .