[Footnote: Tytler, p.402.Burnet, vol.i, p.

95.] These accusations were of so trivial a character, that the Parliament well knew they were not the ground of his arrest, but only a pretext for it--only a pretext, by which the king said to his pliant and trembling Parliament: "This man is innocent; but I will that you condemn him, and therefore you will account the accusation sufficient." Parliament had not the courage to oppose the king's will.

These members of Parliament were nothing more than a flock of sheep, who, in trembling dread of the sharp teeth of the dog, go straight along the path which the dog shows them.
The king wanted them to condemn the Earl of Surrey, and they condemned him.
They summoned him before their judgment-seat, and it was in vain that he proved his innocence in a speech spirited and glowing with eloquence.
These noble members of Parliament would not see that he was innocent.
It is true, indeed, there were a few who were ashamed to bow their heads so unreservedly beneath the king's sceptre, which dripped with blood like a headsman's axe.

There were still a few to whom the accusation appeared insufficient; but they were outvoted; and in order to give Parliament a warning example, the king, on the very same day, had these obstinate ones arrested and accused of some pretended crime.

For this people, enslaved by the king's cruelty and savage barbarity, were already so degenerate and debased in self-consciousness, that men were always and without trouble found, who, in order to please the king and his bloodthirstiness and sanctimonious hypocrisy, degraded themselves to informers, and accused of crime those whom the king's dark frown had indicated to them as offenders.
So Parliament had doomed the Earl of Surrey to die, and the king had signed his death-warrant.
Early next morning he was to be executed; and in the Tower-yard the workmen were already busy in erecting the scaffold on which the noble earl was to be beheaded.
Henry Howard was alone in his cell.