Halifax, though conscious of innocence, refused at first to make any answer.

"Your Majesty asks me," said he, "whether I have committed high treason.

If I am suspected, let me be brought before my peers.

And how can your Majesty place any dependence on the answer of a culprit whose life is at stake?
Even if I had invited His Highness over, I should without scruple plead Not Guilty." The King declared that he did not at all consider Halifax as a culprit, and that he had asked the question as one gentleman asks another who has been calumniated whether there be the least foundation for the calumny.

"In that case," said Halifax, "I have no objection to aver, as a gentleman speaking to a gentleman, on my honour, which is as sacred as my oath, that I have not invited the Prince of Orange over." [499] Clarendon and Nottingham said the same.