Page:Works of Thomas Carlyle - Volume 06.djvu/443

Rh nine to Eighty-three—it is at Five o’clock on Tuesday morning decided, Yea, they are a ground of settlement. The Army Chiefs and the Minority consult together, in deep and deepest deliberation, through that day and night; not, I suppose, without Prayer; and on the morrow morning this is what we see:

Wednesday 6th December 1648, ‘Colonel Rich’s regiment of horse and Colonel Pride’s regiment of foot were a guard to the Parliament; and the City Trainbands were discharged’ from that employment. Yes, they were! Colonel Rich’s horse stand ranked in Palaceyard, Colonel Pride’s foot in Westminster Hall and at all entrances to the Commons House, this day: and in Colonel Pride’s hand is a written list of names, names of the chief among the Hundred and twenty-nine; and at his side is my Lord Grey of Groby, who, as this Member after that comes up, whispers or beckons, ‘he is one of them: he cannot enter!’ and Pride gives the word, ‘To the Queen’s Court’; and Member after Member is marched thither, Forty-one of them this day; and kept there in a state bordering on rabidity, asking, By what Law? and ever again, By what Law? Is there a colour or faintest shadow of Law, to be found in any of the Books, Yearbooks, Rolls of Parliament, Bractons, Fletas, Cokes upon Lyttleton, for this? Hugh Peters visits them; has little comfort, no light as to the Law; confesses, ‘It is by the Law of Necessity; truly, by the Power of the Sword.’

It must be owned the Constable’s baton is fairly down, this day; overborne by the Power of the Sword, and a Law not to be found in any of the Books. At evening the distracted Forty-one are marched to Mr. Duke’s Tavern hard-by, a ‘Tavern called Hell’; and very imperfectly accommodated for the night. Sir Symonds D’Ewes, who has ceased taking notes long since; Mr. William Prynne, louder than any in the question of Law; Waller, Massey, Harley, and other remnants of the old Eleven, are of this unlucky Forty-one; among whom