Page:History of England (Froude) Vol 10.djvu/64

 44 REIGA T OF ELIZABETH [CH. 57. judgment of the court, and inquired whether he must plead to the whole indictment, or to the parts of it separ- ately, and whether all the offences with which he was charged were equally treason. Dyer said, that if the facts were proved, each and all would bring him within the compass of the law On this answer the Duke said he was Not Guilty, and would be tried by God and his Peers only, he con- tinued addressing himself to the Lord Steward, 'he trusted he might have justice, and not be overlaid with speeches. Had he so pleased, he needed not to have been standing where he was ; but he had preferred rather to abide his trial, than by a cowardly running away to leave a gap open to his enemies to slander him/ Trusting to the absence of direct proof against Ki4i, he argued that he ought not to" be pressed with circumstan- tial evidence. He said that he was unlearned and un- eloquent, and that his memory was weak. He was ready and able to encounter only special charges of literal treason. But a prisoner was not to be allowed to dictate the form of his prosecution. The case, was exceedingly ela- borate, involving the history of his proceedings from the time when he was sent as Commissioner to York ; and the story is too well known to the reader to require repetition. It is enough to say, that the Government was acquainted with every important fact in the whole of it. The Duke fought over each detail, with a minute- ness which showed that he had undervalued his powers. The confession of the Bishop of Ross was read to him.