Nine prelates were in their places.

When Argyle presented himself, a single lord protested against the admission of a person whom a legal sentence, passed in due form, and still unreversed, had deprived of the honours of the peerage.

But this objection was overruled by the general sense of the assembly.

When Melville appeared, no voice was raised against his admission.

The Bishop of Edinburgh officiated as chaplain, and made it one of his petitions that God would help and restore King James, [289] It soon appeared that the general feeling of the Convention was by no means in harmony with this prayer.