more scandalous. That nobleman was thrown into prison, in order
to compel him to settle his estate in a manner agreeable to his
daughter-in-law, whom, as there is every reason to believe,
Strafford had debauched. These stories do not rest on vague
report. The historians most partial to the minister admit their
truth, and censure them in terms which, though too lenient for
the occasion, axe still severe. These facts are alone sufficient
to justify the appellation with which Pym branded him "the wicked
Earl."

In spite of all Strafford's vices, in spite of all his dangerous
projects, he was certainly entitled to the benefit of the law;
but of the law in all its rigour; of the law according to the
utmost strictness of the letter, which killeth. He was not to be
torn in pieces by a mob, or stabbed in the back by an assassin.
He was not to have punishment meted out to him from his own
iniquitous measure. But if justice, in the whole range of its
wide armoury, contained one weapon which could pierce him, that
weapon his pursuers were bound, before God and man, to employ.

"If he may
Find mercy in the law, 'tis his: if none,
Let him not seek't of us."

Such was the language which the Commons might justly use.

Did then the articles against Strafford strictly amount to high
treason? Many people, who know neither what the articles were,
nor what high treason is, will answer in the negative, simply
because the accused person, speaking for his life, took that