The certain end, and offer me Pym's grace The warrant for your death. Strafford. ... To sign 'Put not your trust 50 In princes, neither in the sons of men, Hollis. Trust in God. The scaffold is prepared: they wait for you: Charles. You would not see me, Strafford, at your foot! 55 It was wrung from me! Only curse me not! Hollis. [To STRAFFORD.] As you hope grace and pardon in your need, Be merciful to this most wretched man! [Voices from within singing. Strafford. You'll be good to those children, sir? You know All's between you and me: what has the world To do with it? Farewell! Charles [at the door.] Balfour! Balfour! Enter BALFOUR. The Parliament!-go to them: I grant all 60 65 Strafford. Balfour, say nothing to the world of this! I charge you, as a dying man, forget You gazed upon this agony of one... Of one . . . or if... why you may say, Balfour, 70 The King was sorry: 'tis no shame in him: Yes, you may say he even wept, Balfour, Earth fades, Heaven breaks on me: I shall stand next Before God's throne: the moment 's close at hand 75 80 The sudden wreck, the dregs of violent death- R. BROWNING (from Strafford). 90 20. Hollis. Sir Denzel Hollis, who held down the Speaker in his chair in 1629 to prevent him from adjourning the House at Charles's command. After Strafford's death he tried to act as mediator between Charles and the Parliament. 22. Prynne. A Puritan, who for writing satires reflecting on the Queen and the bishops was fined, pilloried, and committed to the Tower. He was released by the Long Parliament, and helped to prosecute Laud. 47. Pym was the leader in the impeachment and the attainder of Strafford, and with Hampden took the foremost part in that resistance to Charles which led up to the Civil War. 89. St. Antholin's, or St. Antony's. The church in Budge Row which the officers of the Tower attended. (The monuments of this church are now preserved in the Tower.) |