Though this incident, considering the example of Stratford's impeachment, and the present disposition of the nation and parliament, needed be no surprise to him, yet was he betrayed into some passion when the accusation was presented.

"The commons themselves," he said, "though his accusers, did not believe him guilty of the crimes with which they charged him;" an indiscretion which, next day, upon more mature deliberation, he desired leave to retract; but so little favorable were the peers, that they refused him this advantage or indulgence.

Laud also was immediately, upon this general charge, sequestered from parliament, and committed to custody.[*] The capital article insisted on against these two great men, was the design which the commons supposed to have been formed of subverting the laws and constitution of England, and introducing arbitrary and unlimited authority into the kingdom.

Of all the king's ministers, no one was so obnoxious in this respect as the lord keeper Finch.

He it was who, being speaker in the king's third parliament, had left the chair, and refused to put the question when ordered by the house.