On the following morning the King came down, in his robes, to the
House of Lords. The Usher of the Black Rod summoned the Commons
to the bar; and the Chancellor announced that the Parliament was
prorogued to the tenth of February.35 The members who had voted
against the court were dismissed from the public service. Charles
Fox quitted the Pay Office. The Bishop of London ceased to be
Dean of the Chapel Royal, and his name was struck out of the list
of Privy Councillors.

The effect of the prorogation was to put an end to a legal
proceeding of the highest importance. Thomas Grey, Earl of
Stamford, sprung from one of the most illustrious houses of
England, had been recently arrested and committed close prisoner
to the Tower on a charge of high treason. He was accused of
having been concerned in the Rye House Plot. A true bill had been
found against him by the grand jury of the City of London, and
had been removed into the House of Lords, the only court before
which a temporal peer can, during a session of Parliament, be
arraigned for any offence higher than a misdemeanour. The first
of December had been fixed for the trial; and orders had been
given that Westminster Hall should be fitted up with seats and
hangings. In consequence of the prorogation, the hearing of the
cause was postponed for an indefinite period; and Stamford soon
regained his liberty.36

Three other Whigs of great eminence were in confinement when the
session closed, Charles Gerard, Lord Gerard of Brandon, eldest
son of the Earl of Macclesfield, John Hampden, grandson of the
renowned leader of the Long Parliament, and Henry Booth, Lord
Delamere. Gerard and Hampden were accused of having taken part in