"
_Bradshaw._ "We shall hear you, sir, before judgment is pronounced.
Until then you ought to abstain from speaking."
Upon this assurance the king became more calm; he sat down, and Bradshaw
proceeded:
"Gentlemen--it is well known that the prisoner at your bar has now been
many times brought before this court to reply to a charge of treason,
and other high crimes, exhibited against him in the name of the English
people"----
"Not half the people," exclaimed the same voice that had spoken on
hearing the name of Fairfax, "where is the people?--where is its
consent?--Oliver Cromwell is a traitor."
The whole assembly seemed electrified!--all eyes turned towards the
gallery: "Down with the w----s," cried Axtell; "soldiers fire upon
them!"--It was lady Fairfax. A general confusion now arose; the
soldiers, though everywhere fierce and active, could with difficulty
repress it. Order being at length a little restored, Bradshaw again
insisted upon the king's obstinate refusal to reply to the charge; upon
the notoriety of the crimes imputed to him, and declared that the court,
though unanimous in its sentence, had nevertheless consented to hear the
prisoner's defence, provided that he would cease to question its
jurisdiction.
"I demand," said the king, "to be heard in the painted chamber, by both
Lords and Commons, upon a proposition which concerns the peace of the
kingdom and the liberty of my subjects much more nearly than my own
preservation.
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