At first it was confidently expected that the Peers would yield; and there was general good humour.

Then came intelligence that the majority of the Lords present had voted for adhering to the amendments.

"I believe," so Vernon wrote the next day, "I believe there was not one man in the House that did not think the nation ruined." The lobbies were cleared; the back doors were locked; the keys were laid on the table; the Serjeant at Arms was directed to take his post at the front door, and to suffer no member to withdraw.

An awful interval followed, during which the angry passions of the assembly seemed to be subdued by terror.

Some of the leaders of the opposition, men of grave character and of large property, stood aghast at finding that they were engaged,--they scarcely knew how,--in a conflict such as they had not at all expected, in a conflict in which they could be victorious only at the expense of the peace and order of society.