HARRISON--Will you give me leave to give you my answer in my own words? LORD CHIEF-BARON--There is no answer but what the law directs; it is the same with you as with all others, or as I would desire if I was in your condition. You must plead Not Guilty, or if you confess Guilty, there must be judgment on your confession. HARRISON--You express your rule very fair, as well to me as to this gentleman (pointing to sir H. Waller, who had just pleaded guilty); but I have something to say, which concerns your Lordships as well as myself. COURT--You must hold, and plead Guilty or Not Guilty. HARRISON--My Lord, I have been kept close prisoner near these three months, that nobody might have access to me. Do you call me to give you a legal answer, not knowing of my trial till nine of the clock last night, and brought away from the Tower to this place at six of the clock this morning? COURT--You must give your direct answer, Guilty, or Not Guilty. You cannot say it is sudden or unprovided. You spend your time in vain. You trouble the Court. You must plead Guilty, or Not Guilty. We must not suffer you to make discourses here. You must plead either Guilty or Not Guilty. CLERK--Are you Guilty, or Not Guilty? After objecting to plead in this way for a little more time, Harrison was at last persuaded to plead Not Guilty. He then objected to complete the usual formula by saying that he would be tried by God and his Country, saying that they were vain words; but eventually-- HARRISON--I do offer myself to be tried in your own way by God and my Country. CLERK--God send you a good deliverance. On the next day, the 11th, at seven o'clock in the morning, Harrison's trial began by the calling of the jury, of whom Harrison challenged thirty-five, his maximum number. The case was then opened by Finch, the Solicitor-General, who, after explaining the law of treason by quotations from the Bible and Coke, charged the prisoner more particularly with having brought the King up to London; with having signed the warrant constituting the Court which tried him; with having sat as a member of the Court; and with having signed the death-warrant. All the witnesses were then sworn, six in all. _Masterson_ proved that he saw Harrison sitting 'in that which they called the High Court of Justice' on the 27th of January 1649, the day when the King was sentenced; and that when the sentence was read he, with others, stood up as assenting to it. _Clark_, _Kirk_, and _Nutley_ also gave evidence to the same effect; the latter adding that some few days before the 20th there was a Committee in the Exchequer Chamber of which the prisoner was a member.