Page:History of England (Froude) Vol 7.djvu/487

 i$66.] Ttffi MURDER OF DARNLEY. 467 England, and the Scottish Queen's child ! Prince of Scotland and England, and Scotland before England ! who ever heard or read that before this time ? What true English heart may sustain to hear of this villany and reproach against the Queen's Highness and this hei realm ? It is so that it hath pleased her Highness at this time to bar our speech ; but if our mouths shall be stopped, and in the mean time such despite shall happen and pass without revenge, it will make the heart of a true Englishman break within his breast/ With the indignity of the matter being,' as he afterwards said, ' set on fire/ Dalton went on to touch on dangerous matters, and entered on the forbidden subject of the Scottish title. The Speaker gently checked him, but not before he had uttered words which called out the whole sympathy of the Commons, and gave them an opportunity of showing how few friends in that House Mary Stuart as yet could count upon. 1 The story was carried to the Queen : she chose to believe that the House of Commons intended to defy her ; she ordered Dalton into arrest and had him ex- amined before the Star Chamber ; she construed her own orders into a law, and seemed determined to govern the House of Commons as if it was a debating society of riotous boys. The Commons behaved with great forbearance: they replied to the seizure of the offending member by requesting ' to have leave to confer upon the liberties 1 Mr Dalton's Speech, according to the Report : Domestic MSS., Eliza 6eth t vol. xli.