in the face, and, I hope, the people too. Have you a care that I do not escape. 'Tis all one how I die; whether by the stroke of the executioner, or the madness and fury of the people, if that may content them." And, being freer than usual from bodily infirmities, he walked onward, going before the guards, with a serene yet somewhat elated countenance, like a general (as was observed) at the head of his troops. He was habited in black, with white gloves on his hands. A numerous crowd, consisting of not less than one hundred thousand persons, stretched in long perspective across Tower Hill; to whom he frequently took off his hat, and saluted them as he passed.

Having ascended the scaffold, followed by Sir George Wentworth, the primate Usher, and others of his friends, he knelt down, and, rising, examined the block. He then intimated his desire to speak to the people. "I am here," he said, "to pay my last debt to sin, which is death; and I solemnly declare, in the presence of Almighty God, in whose mercies I trust, that in all my service to his majesty, however it be my ill fortune to have my acts misconstrued, I had never any intention but to promote the joint prosperity of the king and his people. I wish this kingdom all prosperity and happiness; I wished it living, I wish it dying. But let every one consider seriously, whether the beginning of the people's happiness should be written in letters of blood." After making protestation of his faith and devotion to the Church of England, and his cheerful forgiveness of his enemies, "One thing," he continued, "I desire to be heard in, and do hope that for Christian charity's sake I shall be believed. I was so far from being against parliaments, that I have always thought parliaments in England to be the happy constitution of the kingdom! and the best means under God to make the king and his people happy."

He then turned to take leave of his friends. To each he affectionately gave his hand. "Gentlemen," he said, "I would say my prayers; and I entreat you all to pray with me, and for me." Again standing up, he perceived his brother, Sir George Wentworth, weeping excessively. "Brother," said he to him, "what do you see in me to cause these tears? Does any indecent fear betray in me guilt, or my innocent boldness want of religion? Think that you are now accompanying me once more to my marriage-bed. That block must be my pillow, and here I must rest from all my labours. No thoughts of envy, no dreams of treason, no jealousies or cares for the king, the state, or myself, shall interrupt this easy sleep. Therefore, rather pity with me those who, without intending it, have made me happy. Brother, we must part. Remember me to my sister and to my wife; and carry my blessing to my eldest son, and charge him from me to fear God, to continue an obedient son of the Church of England, and a faithful subject to the king, and that he bear no grudge or revenge towards any concerning me. Carry my blessing to Ann and Arabella (his daughters), not forgetting my little infant, that knows neither good nor evil, and cannot speak for itself, God speak for it, and bless it! I have now well-nigh done: one stroke will make my wife husbandless, my dear children fatherless, and my poor servants masterless, and separate me from my dear brother, and all my friends; but may God be to you and them all in all !"

He proceeded to undress himself, winding up his hair beneath a cap with his hands

;

and while thus employed, he said, "Never did I take off my clothes with greater cheerfulness and content, when I went to bed, than in this preparation for my grave." He inquired for the executioner. "Where," he said, "is the man that should do me this office? call him to me." The headsman approached, and asked his forgiveness. Strafford replied, that he forgave him and all the world.

The affecting narrative of this great man's departure from life thus closes. "Kneeling down by the block, he went to prayer again by himself, the primate of Ireland kneeling on the one side, and the minister on the other; to the which minister after prayer he turned himself, and spoke some few words softly; having his hands lifted up, the minister closed his hands with his. Then bowing himself to the earth to lay down his head on the block, he told the executioner that he would first lay down his head to try the fitness of the block, and take it up again, before he laid it down for good and all; and so he did and before he laid it down again, he told the executioner that he would give him warning when to strike, by stretching forth both his hands; and then, having laid down his neck on the block, stretching out his hands, the executioner struck off his head at one blow, then took up the head in his hand, and showed it to all the people, and said, 'God save the king!"

"Thus ❞—wrote Laud, on recovering his usual serenity, after that overwhelming farewell, sufficiently to proceed with the task which solaced his imprisonment until his own turn came,-" ended the wisest, the stoutest, and every way the ablest subject that this nation had bred these many years." The excellent Evelyn also says, under date of that sanguinary 12th of May, 1641, "I beheld on Tower Hill the fatal stroke which severed the wisest head in England from the shoulders of the Earl of Strafford; whose crime, coming under the cognizance of no human law, a new one was made, not to be a precedent, but his destruction: to such exorbitancy were things arrived." These were the sentiments of persons of humanity and reflection. But the populace, though awed into decency at the scaffold, celebrated their triumph-for such they were taught to esteem it-with shouts of exultation as they returned through the City.