305 In January 1648 the court sate, the king was brought to his triall, and a charge drawne up against hii:n for leavying wan·e against the parliament and people of England, for betreying their publick trust reposed in him, and for being an implacable enemie to the commonwealth. But the king refus'd to plead, disowning the authority of the court, and after three·several! dayes persisting in contempt thereof, he was sentenc'd to snlfer death. ' One thing was remark'd in him by many of the court, that when the bloud spilt in many of the battles where he was in his owne person, and had caus'd it to be shed by his owne command, was lay'd to his charge, he heard it with disdainefull smiles, and looks and gestures, which rather exprest sorrow that all the opposite party to him was not cutt off, then that any were: and he stuck not to dec;lare in words that no man's blood spilt in this quarrel troubled him but only one, meaning the Earle of Stratford. The , gentl~men that were appoynted his iudges, and divers others, saw in him a disposition so bent on the ruine of all that oppos'd him, and of all the righteous and iust things they had contended for, that it was upon the consciences of many of them that if they did not execute iustice upon him, God would require at their hands all the blood and desolation which should ensue by their suffering him to escape, when God had ·~ Without entering into the merits of the question, we may safely assert that the trial of the king was without precedent, though many sovereigns had been deposed and put to death without trial. It may appear fanciful to many to suggest that the precedent set at this period could have any influence on the fate of the unfortunate J.. ollis XVI; but those who have well observed the proneness of the French to' mi~ mickry (singedc), and peculiarly at the , time of their first revolution, thei r Auglomauia, or apeing of the English (preferably in their foibles), will not be far fi·om believing that this precedent emboldened them to the mockery of justice, which they exhibited in his trial and condemnation. It is true that many, and even most, circum~ stances were lvauting to 1·ender the cases parallel, but they were determined to come up to the height of the English revol ution (a la hauteur des Anglois), and therefore malice and invention supplied all deficiencies.
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