end of the Hall, Oliver Cromwell was inaugurated as Lord Protector,
sitting in a robe of purple velvet lined with ermine, on a rich cloth of
state, with the gold sceptre in one hand, the Bible richly gilt and bossed
in the other, and his sword at his side. Here, four years later, at the
top of the Hall fronting Palace-yard, his head was set on a pole, with the
skulls of Ireton on one side, of Bradshaw on the other. Here, shameless
ruffians sought employment as hired witnesses, and walked openly in the
Hall with a straw in the shoe to denote their quality; and here the good,
the great, the brave, the wise, and the abandoned have been brought to
trial. Here (in the Hall of Rufus) Sir William Wallace was tried and
condemned; in this very Hall, Sir Thomas More and Protector Sommerset were
doomed to the scaffold. Here, in Henry VIII.'s reign (1517), entered the
City apprentices, implicated in the murders on 'Evil May Day' of the
aliens settled in London, each with a halter round his neck, and crying
'Mercy, gracious Lord, Mercy,' while Wolsey stood by, and the King,
beneath his cloth of state, heard their defense and pronounced their
pardon--the prisoners shouting with delight and casting up their halters
to the Hall roof, 'so that the King,' as the chroniclers observe, 'might
perceive they were none of the descreetest.' Here the notorious Earl and
Countess of Somerset were tried in the reign of James I. for the murder of
Sir Thomas Overbury. Here, the great Earl of Stafford was condemned; the
King being present, and the Commons sitting bareheaded all the time. The
_High Court of Justice_ which condemned King Charles I. sat in this Hall,
the upper part hung with scarlet cloth, and the King sitting underneath,
with the Naseby banners suspended above his head. Lilly, the astrologer,
who was present, saw the silver top fall from the King's staff, and others
heard Lady Fairfax exclaim, when her husband's name was called over, 'He
has more wit than to be here.' Here, in the reign of James II., the seven
bishops were acquitted. Here Dr. Sacheverel was tried and pronounced
guilty by a majority of seventeen. Here the rebel Lords of 1745,