[143] While the King was thus trying to terrify the Lords of Articles into submission, the popular voice encouraged them to persist.

The utmost exertions of the Chancellor could not prevent the national sentiment from expressing itself through the pulpit and the press.

One tract, written with such boldness and acrimony that no printer dared to put it in type, was widely circulated in manuscript.

The papers which appeared on the other side of the question had much less effect, though they were disseminated at the public charge, and though the Scottish defenders of the government were assisted by an English auxiliary of great note, Lestrange, who had been sent down to Edinburgh, and had apartments in Holyrood House.

[144] At length, after three weeks of debate, the Lords of Articles came to a decision.